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Noriega and Key Players in the Drug Trade, Part I

Noriega and Key Players in the Drug Trade

ABBELL, Michael.
Washington-based lawyer for Gilberto RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA.
WP   10/23       Ex-Official Quits Firm, But Keeps Cali Clients;
...
Ex-Official Quits Firm, But Keeps Cali Clients; Lawyer Handled Drug
Extraditions at Justice
By Michael Isikoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
   A former Justice Department official who represents the alleged
leaders of Colombia's Cali cocaine cartel has left his
international law firm following complaints about his activities
from some of the firm's clients in Colombia.
   Michael Abbell, former director of the Justice Department's
office of international affairs, said last week that he resigned
from the firm of Kaplan, Russin & Vecchi after his work for the
alleged cartel traffickers was reported in The Washington Post Oct.
2.
   But Abbell, who once supervised U.S. government efforts to
extradite Colombian drug traffickers, said he will continue to
represent reputed drug boss Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and other
accused Cali traffickers whose extradition is wanted by the United
States.
   "My duty is to my clients - to see that their rights are
properly represented within the legal system," said Abbell.
  Rodriguez, his brother Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela and four other
accused Cali traffickers were included on the list of "12 most
wanted" drug fugitives released last month by Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh.
   Bruno Ristau, managing partner of Kaplan, Russin's Washington
office, where Abbell was "of counsel," did not return telephone
calls Friday.
   Abbell said The Post report generated complaints about his work
from some of the firm's U.S. corporate clients in Bogota and
jeopardized the civil and commercial law business of the firm.
   Abbell said he concluded that his criminal defense work was
"incompatible" with the interests of the firm and "the people here
who received the complaints . . . said, `We agree with you,' "
APn  11/19 1136  Drug Lawyer
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By CAROLYN SKORNECK
 Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prosecutors regularly leave government
service to defend the kind of people they once tried to put in
jail, but some say the case of Michael Abbell is special.
   Abbell left the Justice Department in 1984 after 17 1/2 years --
during which he rose to head the Criminal Division office that
handled extraditions from foreign countries. Now, he represents
some of the very people the United States wants most to extradite:
alleged cocaine kingpins from Colombia.    He also has urged
Congress to amend mutual legal assistance treaties with foreign
nations to give defendants in international cases the same rights
as prosecutors in obtaining evidence from overseas, and he helped
craft a policy resolution on that issue that was approved in August
by the American Bar Association.
   Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate narcotics and
terrorism subcommittee, criticizes Abbell's switch to the other
side.
   "I personally find quite troubling the decision of a former
high-level Justice Department official like Mr. Abbell to provide
expertise to major cocaine traffickers that he gained while he was
working for the United States Justice Department and privy to the
innermost workings of our criminal justice system," Kerry wrote
recently to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
   But Abbell contends -- and legal ethics experts agree -- that
prosecutors switch sides all the time and there is nothing wrong
with it.    "I obtained written conflict-of-interest clearance from
the Department of Justice, even though it was not necessary, in an
excess of caution," he said. He obtained that clearance prior to
appearing in a Spanish court in 1985 as an expert witness on U.S.
grand jury practices in a case involving alleged Cali cocaine
cartel kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and alleged Medellin
cocaine cartel leader Jorge Ochoa.
   Department spokesman Dan Eramian confirmed that Abbell received
conflict-of-interest clearance.
   More recently, Abbell said, he has traveled several times to
Cali to meet with Rodriguez and his associates to advise them on
how to avoid U.S. extradition requests. Rodriguez and other alleged
Cali cartel leaders are on a Justice Department list of 12 "most
wanted" drug fugitives. 
   Abbell, interviewed by telephone, acknowledged that the
extradition treaty with Colombia "was negotiated when I headed the
(Justice Department) office," but he stressed he's not scrounging
for a loophole in his representation of Colombian clients. He said
he is arguing "that treaty was held to be not enforceable by the
Colombian Supreme Court because it was not properly ratified in
Colombia."
   The treaty was reinstated under emergency measures Aug. 18 by
President Virgilio Barco.
   Abbell said he left his law firm after a Washington Post story
last month about his new clientele, but added, "These people are by
no means my only clients. A good part of the work I do is in the
white collar area."    Abbell said he left the Justice Department
because of the relatively low pay and because a political appointee
was "moved down on my shoulders."    "Very few prosecutors stay on
for their whole lives and most of them get involved in defending
cases," he said. "... You go to any district in which there are
drug defendants and you will find former prosecutors defending
them."    ABA officials scrutinized Abbell's work on the ABA
resolution in the wake of the publicity about his clients, said
James R. Silkenat, who chairs the association's International Law
Section.
   Silkenat said he found Abbell "did not initiate the action," the
people involved knew of Abbell's clientele, and his work was "well
apart from any private work he might have been doing. ... There
didn't seem to be any particularly pernicious acts by him that
anybody could complain about."    Stephen Gillers, New York
University legal ethics professor, said he found no legal or
ethical problems with Abbell's side-switching. Since Abbell
developed the extradition treaty with Colombia, he cannot argue the
treaty is unconstitutional under U.S. law but arguing that the
Colombian Supreme Court's action makes it inoperable is "absolutely
valid," Gillers said.
ABELLO SILVA, Jose Rafael. 
Considered one of the major drug traffickers in the Santa Marta
region.  One of  128  major capos whose capture was ordered by
President Barco in January 1987.  Captured in Barranquilla in
January 1987 and released shortly thereafter, apparently  with  the 
help of La Guajira senator and traffickers protector, Miguel PINEDO
BARROS.  Seemingly, a close associate of other northcoast 
traffickers  including  the  O'BYRNE  brothers and Carlos GOMEZ
ZAPATA.
APn  10/11 1912  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A top-ranking member of the Medellin
cocaine cartel who resorted to plastic surgery to avoid arrest was
captured and will face extradition to the United States, police
said Wednesday.
   The Bogota daily El Espectador temporarily closed its Medellin
office after drug lords killed two of the newspaper's employees
there and threatened to murder the bureau's remaining staff of 11.
An executive of the anti-drug crusading newspaper said officials
will study how to improve office security but that the government
must do more to protect the paper and its employees.
   The Administrative Security Department said the suspected drug
trafficker, Jose Abello Silva, was arrested Tuesday in a Bogota
restaurant. The office said in a communique that he had undergone
facial surgery to avoid easy detection.
   It also said Abello is the fourth-ranking person in the Medellin
cocaine cartel, Colombia's largest, and the most important suspect
arrested since Colombia began cracking down on cocaine lords Aug.
19.
   In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Harri J. Kramer said
a federal grand jury in Tulsa, Okla., indicted Abello in 1987 on
charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine.
   Kramer said the Justice Department had requested that Abello and
a suspect arrested Wednesday, Manuel Palma, be held for
extradition.
   Palma is wanted by federal authorities in Miami on charges of
interstate travel in aid of racketeering in connection with an
operation to launder drug money, Kramer said.
   Details of Palma's arrest were not immediately available from
Colombia police.
   Neither Palma nor Abello is on the U.S. Justice Department's
list of 12 most wanted traffickers, but the department has said it
wants dozens of other Colombians on federal drug charges.
   Cornelius Dougherty, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, said in Washington that Abello "was considered a
major transporter for the Medellin cartel," responsible for "major
shipments of cocaine and marijuana into the states."
   Colombia's Administrative Security Department said Abello was
the cartel's chief of operations for Colombia's northern coast.
   Dozens of clandestine air strips on the north coast are used to
smuggle 300 to 400 tons of cocaine into the United States each
year, law enforcement officials say.
   The federal police force said legal documents from the U.S.
government for extraditing Abello are being processed.
   So far Colombia has extradited one suspected trafficker; four,
including Abello, are awaiting extradition.
   Although El Espectador closed its office in Medellin, it will
try to continue circulating in the city, a newspaper executive
said, asking that he not be identified further for security
reasons.
   An anonymous caller told El Espectador the Extraditables -- a
group of cocaine traffickers -- had killed the two employes Tuesday
and would kill the others in Medellin if the office remained open.
   The two slain were Marta Luz Lopez, the Medellin office
administrator, and Miguel Soler, the paper's circulation manager in
Medellin, a city of 2 million people 150 miles northwest of the
capital.
   "El Espectador declares that it will be able to survive as a
free newspaper only if the government fulfills its obligation to
protect our lives and properties," the paper's directors said in a
letter sent to Interior Minister Carlos Lemmos Simmonds.
   A spokeswoman for the minister's office said there had been no
official response to the letter.
   "This threat should be understood as against not only our
business but against press freedom in the country," the letter
said.
   El Espectador has been the most vociferous of Colombia's
newspapers in editorials calling on the government to crush the
nation's drug trade.
   On Sept. 2, a 500-pound car bomb seriously damaged the
newpaper's building in Bogota. The paper's owner, Luis Gabriel
Cano, has said the newspaper may have to close if it doesn't get
financial help.
   Cano's brother, Guillermo Cano, was publisher of the paper when
he was killed by drug traffickers in 1987.
UPn  10/29 2214  Drug trafficker extradited to U.S.
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- A Colombian national wanted in
Oklahoma was extradited Sunday morning, bringing to five the number
of accused cocaine traffickers sent to the United States under a
resurrected policy to deal with Colombia's surging drug war.
   Jose Abello Silva, the reputed chief of Caribbean coast
operations for the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel, was
transferred early Sunday to the custody of U.S. Marshal's Service
agents and was immediately put on a plane to Tulsa, Okla. He
arrived in Tulsa Sunday afternoon.
   Meanwhile, the violence continued Sunday when two television
newsmen, Jorge Enrique Pulido and Ximena Godoy, were wounded in a
terrorist attack in the center of Bogota. They were shot by two
gunmen on a motorcycle.    Pulido, a well-known journalist and news
director at Mundovision, was hospitalized with three bullet wounds,
a spokesman for San Pedro Claves Clinic said. He was placed in
intensive care after emergency surgery. Godoy, a news anchor, was
shot in the left leg.
   The two men were leaving the headquarters of the Colombian Radio
and Television Institute after a news program when the attack
occurred. Police said 
one suspected gunman was arrested. The other escaped.    
   Colombian civilian and military officials refused comment on the
extradition, but the extradition was confirmed by a statement from
the Marshal's Service issued in Washington.
   The extradition brings to five the number of accused drug
traffickers sent to the United States since President Virgilio
Barco re-established extradition Aug. 18 after a string of
assassinations attributed to the cocaine cartels.    Ana Beatriz
Rodriguez, Roberto Victor Carlini and Bernardo Peleaz Roldan were
extradited Oct. 14, and Eduardo Martinez Roldan was sent to Atlanta
Sept. 6 to face money laundering charges.
   Colombian news reports said Abello Silva, 44, who was captured
Oct. 11 in a Bogota restaurant, had been heavily guarded by
authorities because of a supposed contract out on his life.
   The suspect is believed to be the seventh-ranking man in the
Medellin cartel heirarchy and could reveal important information
about organized crime in Colombia during his trial.
   He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Tulsa in 1987 on
charges of taking part in a large-scale conspiracy to import
cocaine into the United States, the Marshals Service said. It said
Abello Silva's trafficking ring was responsible for the importation
of more than 1,700 pounds of cocaine into the United States.
  Barco returned Saturday night from San Jose, Costa Rica, where he
met leaders from throughout the Americas, including President Bush,
to discuss the drug war, among other issues.
   "I return very excited and proud of our country," Barco told
reporters at Catam airport.
   Also Saturday night, Minister of the Interior Carlos Lemos
Simmonds condemned the assassination of leftist leader Gabriel
Santamaria in Medellin and announced a meeting with leftist
politicians Monday to discuss new security measures.    Santamaria,
vice president of the Antioquia state assembly and president of the
leftist Patriotic Union, was shot by gunmen in his office in
Medellin Friday afternoon.
   "We will continue to try to give the best security possible to
the members of any political group," Lemos said.
   He blamed the killing on the "usual phonomenon, well-organized
crime."    "The state and the opposition have the same enemy,"
Lemos said, "and we know who that enemy is, and where it is."
   Meanwhile, two Bogota television journalists were attacked by
gunmen as they left work Sunday afternoon, police said.
   Jorge Enrique Pulido and Ximena Godoy were reported recovering
and out of danger in a hospital after two gunmen on a motorcycle
sprayed Pulido's car with machine gun fire after the pair left the
Mundovision News studio.    Also Sunday, the leftist rebel group
the April 19 Movement, known as M-19, which negotiated a cease-fire
and amnesty plan with the government over the past six months,
announced it would turn over its arms Dec. 15, giving up 19 years
of war.
   Commander Carlos Pizarro Leongomez said the turning over of
weapons was conditioned on the government's passing of an amnesty
bill now before Congress.    "It is conditioned on the political
pact" with the government, Pizarro said i an interview broadcast on
RCN radio from the rebels' mountain hideout near Cali, 200 miles
southwest of Bogota.
   Over the past six months the M-19 has negotiated a peace plan
with the government, agreeing to give up armed insurrection for a
full pardon and the right to form a political party.
ACOSTA, Flavio.    
Formerly  commander  of  the  Medellin Metro Police and considered
in  the  traffickers  hip  pocket.    He  never  made  an important
narcotics arrest.  Medellin police  are known to frequently make
multi-million peso bank deposits.  Their arrest of Pablo ESCOBAR 
in 1986 was a mistake.
AEROCONDOR AIRLINES.
Airline owned by Julio CALDERON and managed by the MILLON brothers.
AGUIRRE ARDILLA, "El Coronel".    
Bogota gangster involved in early Bogota
trafficking activities and  host  of  the  Drug  mafia  summit
meeting held in Bogota in February 1976.  He  was  murdered  during 
one of the drug wars that swept Colombia.    His  cousin,  Jose 
Manual  CRUZ  AGUIRRE,  former owner of Deportes Tolima, is wanted
in Peru, and may be wanted in Miami.

ALCANTARA, Carlos.
Cali trafficker and associate of Tulio Marco Echeverry Uribe.
ALVAREZ MORENO, Jose Hader.   
A  native of Santander and believed to have initiated cocaine
operations there in the 1970s.   A money launderer, he was a key
individual in  the  DEA  1982  Operation  Swordfish.    Alvarez
fronts for legitimate businesses, and has  been  involved  in
trafficking activities with Juvenal BETANCUR CUARTAS  (the  former 
President  of  Colombia's brother) and Victor Manual BARRETO COLL. 
He  later  took up with Pablo ESCOBAR GAVIRIA and ran his Servicios
Aeroejecutivos Company.   His children were kidnapped by the M-19, 
whereupon  he   helped   ensure   that   the  kidnappers 
"disappeared" permanently.    Laundered  millions  of  dollars 
through  the  Banco  de  los Trabajadores operation  created  by 
RODRIGUEZ  OREJUELA.    One  of  the many traffickers placed on 
the  GOC  wanted  list  following  the assassination of Justice
Minister Lara Bonilla in  1984.    The US requested his extradition
in 1985.
AMSILI COHEN, Joseph.
Associate of Jose Gonzalo RODRIGUEZ GACHA.
UPn  11/21 1623  Suspected trafficker wanted in U.S. captured in
Col...
Suspected trafficker wanted in U.S. captured in Colombia  By JOSEPH
COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Police captured a fugitive wanted in
Massachusetts on U.S. drug trafficking charges and, separately,
seized 600 pounds of cocaine when a drug-laden plane made an
emergency landing in Colombia's Atlantic state, authorities said
Tuesday.
   Joseph Amsili Cohen, 38, accused in a Boston federal court on
cocaine smuggling charges, was captured Sunday by members of the
Administrative Security Department, a secret police force.
   The agency declined to disclose the time or place of Amsili's
capture.    Amsili, born in Morocco but nationalized in 1984 as a
Colombian citizen, has been linked in Colombian news reports to
cocaine kingpin Jose Rodriguez Gacha, the No. 2 man in the powerful
Medellin cartel and head of its Bogota operations.    Papers
reportedly were being prepared to extradite Amsili, who fled the
United States in April 1988 to avoid arrest.
   Two suspected drug traffickers were sent to the United States
last weekend to face trial in federal courts, bringing to eight the
number of Colombians extradited during the 3-month-old government
offensive against the drug cartels. 
   In a separate incident Sunday in Atlantic state, authorities
seized about 600 pounds of cocaine and captured seven suspects when
their small Cessna plane made an emergency landing in Sabanalarga,
25 miles south of the Caribbean port city Barranquilla, news
reports said.
   The police said they had "nothing concrete" to confirm the
reports.    The destination of the cocaine-laden plane was not
immediately known.    The Bogota newspaper El Tiempo Tuesday cited
official reports showing that 3,336 people have been captured,
14,000 pounds of cocaine base seized, and 478 cocaine laboratories
destroyed since the government launched its latest anti-drug
campaign Aug. 18.
   Battles between the army and leftist guerrillas Sunday and
Monday left 17 rebels and one soldier dead, unconfirmed news
reports said.    The reports said members of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, the National Liberation Army and the
Indian Quintin Lame were killed in fighting in different parts of
the country. The Ministry of Defense declined to confirm the
reports.
   Until recently the Revolutionary Armed Forces and Quintin Lame
have observed a unilateral cease-fire in hopes of working out a
peace agreement with the government.
   The leftist April 19th Movement, also known as M-19, recently
concluded a peace pact with the government and officially announced
Monday it would hand over its weapons to a commission of the
Socialist International led by Italian former Prime Minister
Bettino Craxi.
   The M-19 agreed to give up its war on the government in exchange
for a pardon and a scheme giving the ex-rebels an edge in
senatorial and congressional races. The group said it would turn
over its guns on Dec. 19 and march from its mountain hideout to
Cali, 200 miles southwest of Bogota, for its first open political
rally.
   The M-19, described recently by a Colombian journalist as
"excellent publicists," has a history of spectacular actions,
including the theft of South American liberator Simon Bolivar's
sword in 1974 and the November 1985 occupation of the Palace of
Justice. Twelve Supreme Court judges were among the 100 people
killed in the siege.
ANDERSON, Hilmer.
UPI journalist.ANGULO FERNANDEZ, Rosa.    
"La  Chota Rosa", known Bolivian trafficker who works with the
Medellin cartel.  Buys basic cocaine paste (BCP) in the Chapare
region and sells in quantity  in  Colombia,  Brazil  and Bolivia. 
Detained in
Cochabamba in July 1988.
ANTCZAK, John.
AP journalist.
ARANGO, Carlos (aka Miguel VELEZ aka Cumbamba).
Medellin cartel operative currently serving a life sentence for his
involvement in the assassination of Barry SEAL.
ARCE GOMEZ, Luis.
Former Bolivian minister of the interior and trafficker; extradited
to Florida in December, 1989.
UPn  12/11 1812  Former cabinet minister deported to U.S. on drug
ch... 
Former cabinet minister deported to U.S. on drug charges By ALBERTO
ZUAZO
   LA PAZ, Bolivia (UPI) -- Former Interior Minister Luis Arce
Gomez, an ex-army colonel wanted on U.S. cocaine charges, was
captured in a joint operation by Bolivian anti-drug police and U.S.
drug agents and deported Monday to the United States.
   Interior Minister Guillermo Capobianco told reporters Arce
Gomez, who was also wanted in Bolivia on murder charges relating to
a 1980 coup d'etat, was placed on a U.S. plane in Cochabamba and
flown to Miami Monday without a formal extradition proceeding.
   Reading a prepared statement, Capobianco said that Arce Gomez
was captured in the city of Santa Cruz in an operation "carried out
by a commando unit of the UMOPAR (anti-drug police) in a combined
action" with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
   In Miami, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Diane Cossin said
Gomez was indicted in the Southern District of Florida court in
1983 along with 16 other people on allegations of cocaine
distribution conspiracy.
   Another defendant in the case, Ana Rodriguez de Tamayo, was
extradited by Colombia to Florida Oct. 14 and is awaiting trial.
   Bolivian news reports said Arce Gomez, wearing soccer shorts,
was arrested Sunday on a ranch 3 miles from Santa Cruz while
attending a family party.
   The interior minister's statement said, "The government of
National Unity has decided to transfer the international criminal
Luis Arce Gomez to the United States of North America at the
request of the justice system and government of that country, which
has charges pending against him for narcotics trafficking and other
charges."
   Earlier, in a telephone interview with United Press
International, Capobianco said the deportation was "a sovereign
political act, that in no way comes under the status of an
extradition, which doesn't exist, because the old (law) that exists
(from 1901) does not involve narcotics trafficking."
   Capobianco said the deportation of Arce Gomez was a
"demonstration before the international community" of Bolivia's
commitment to combat drug trafficking.
   After Peru, Bolivia is the world's second-largest producer of
coca leaves, which are processed into cocaine in countries such as
Colombia before shipment to the United States and other consumer
nations.
   Colombia has extradited nine drug-trafficking suspects to the
United States in recent months despite a campaign of violence by
drug lords, including the recent bombing of secret police
headquarters and the bombing of an Avianca airliner that crashed
outside Bogota.
   Senate minority leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., said Monday in La
Paz that he and four Senate colleagues touring Bolivia
congratulated President Jaime Paz Zamora for ordering Arce Gomez's
deportation.
   Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said although the senators were
pleased at the deportation of Arce Gomez, "we are a little bit
disillusioned with the failure to fulfill the (1989) objective to
eliminate 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of coca leaf cultivation."
   Dole said Bolivia lost $12 million in aid because of its failure
to reach the coca leaf reduction targets. He said Congress expects
to allocate $160 million to combat drug trafficking and aid
economic development in Bolivia in 1990.
   At the news conference, Capobianco said that Arce Gomez might be
returned to Bolivia if the Bolivian government requests it.
   The former colonel is accused of murdering dissidents during and
after the 1980 coup d'etat by Gen. Luis Garcia Meza, who himself
was overthrown in another rebellion after only 13 months in office.
Arce Gomez served as interior minister to Gen. Garcia Meza.
   Arce Gomez is suspected of collaborating in the murders of
socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, Jesuit priest Luis
Espinal, and seven leaders of the Leftist Revolutionary Movement,
the party that now rules Bolivia in a coalition with a rightist
party.
   The Bolivian Supreme Court in Sucre has been trying Arce Gomez
in absentia along with ex-president Garcia Meza, who is a fugitive,
and 54 other defendants accused of murdering dissidents.
   The trial began three years ago and is continuing.
   Most of the defendants, former government officials, have
appeared in court to defend themselves. 
APn  12/11 1903  Bolivia-Arce Gomez 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Luis Arce Gomez was flown to the Miami
on Monday for trial on charges of trafficking in drugs while he was
interior minister in a former Bolivian military government.
   He has been accused of leading a cocaine trafficking operation
while he was Bolivia's top law enforcement official. He also hired
Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie to advise paramilitary forces that
tortured and killed opposition political and labor figures.
   A U.S. indictment in Miami alleges that Bolivian secret police
under his control seized cocaine from traffickers who failed to pay
for protection, and delivered it to smugglers who did pay.
   Two lieutenants of Arce Gomez who were charged with him once
received $1.5 million for cocaine that was confiscated by Bolivian
authorities and stored in bank vaults, according to the indictment.
It says Arce Gomez personally ordered the cocaine released.
   "He was indicted along with 18 other individuals and charged
with various violations of the criminal drug laws of the United
States," said Diane Cossin, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's
office in Miami.
   "Specifically, the charges involved conspiracies related to the
importation, distribution and intent to distribute narcotics," she
said.
   Arce Gomez had a reputation for ruthlessness and for personally
torturing political prisoners.
   He was named interior minister in 1980 and rounded up hundreds
of journalists, political and labor leaders and church officials.
Under U.S. pressure, he was removed from office in 1981.
   Arce Gomez fled to Argentina in 1982 and was arrested under the
Miami indictment, but the military government there freed him in
December 1983, just before turning over power to the civilian
administration of President Raul Alfonsin.
   His whereabouts were not known until he was captured Sunday at
a ranch near Santa Cruz, a hub for drug traffickers 350 miles east
of La Paz. He offered no resistance when hundreds of police
officers arrived at the ranch.
   U.S. Ambassador Robert Gelbard told The Associated Press: "We
think it was a couragous act by the Bolivian government to capture
this man, who not only was and is an important cocaine trafficker
but was also responsible to a great extent for the growth of the
cocaine trade."
   Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, a Utah republican, said Monday at the end
of a one-day visit to Bolivia: "We are pleased that criminals like
this are being dealt with in this matter and we hope to assist in
any way we can."
   In Washington, the White House said in a statement, "Bolivia
today has apprehended and turned over to the United States Luis
Arce Gomez, who has been a fugitive from U.S. justice since 1983.
Gomez was wanted in the Southern District of Florida where he has
been charged with two counts of drug trafficking along with
co-defendant Anna de Tamayo Rodriguez, who was recently extradited
from Colombia.
   "The arrest of Arce Gomez sends a message that the president
will work with other goverments to pursue vigorously individuals
who traffic in drugs."
   Interior Minister Guillermo Capobianco said he had advised and
received support from Bolivia's main political parties for sending
Arce Gomez to Miami.
   Arce Gomez was stripped of Bolivian citizenship last year for
failing to show up for trial in this country on charges of human
rights violations and cocaine trafficking. 
APn  12/12 1622  Arce Gomez 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By RICHARD COLE Associated Press Writer
   MIAMI (AP) -- A Bolivian colonel dubbed his nation's "minister
of cocaine" in the early 1980s was ordered held without bond
Tuesday on drug-trafficking charges that could send him to prison
for 30 years.
   Luis Arce Gomez was a fugitive for six years until Sunday, when
Bolivian authorities raided his ranch and put him on a Drug
Enforcement Administration plane bound for the United States.
   Human rights groups have accused Arce Gomez of running death
squads that hunted down, tortured and killed enemies of the
military government with the help of fugitive Nazi Klaus Barbie.
   "Bringing him to trial is a significant strike against the
danger posed to the United States by those who deal in narcotics,"
said Diane Cossin, executive assistant to U.S. Attorney Dexter
Lehtinen. "We hope to convict him of these charges and have him
spend time in prison."
   Arce Gomez, wearing a T-shirt, slacks and sandals, responded
with "I understand" after he was read a summary of charges at a
hearing before U.S. Magistrate William Turnoff.
   He was represented by Jose Quinon, one of Carlos Lehder Rivas'
attorneys during his trial in Jacksonville last year.
   Lehder Rivas, who is Colombian, was convicted of masterminding
a massive cocaine conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.
   Arce Gomez, his hands clasped behind his back, spoke up at the
end of his hearing to request that the records from a 1983
extradition hearing in Argentina be preserved for his defense.
   "He emerged victorious out of that hearing and he wants to make
sure that any proof presented there is preserved," his attorney
said.
   Turnoff ordered an arraignment and formal bond hearing for Dec.
26 in Fort Lauderdale, where previous trials on the indictment have
been held.
   The 1983 Miami indictment against Arce Gomez and his top aides
accuses them of setting up a protection racket for drug traffickers
in Bolivia, charging them huge sums to continue business -- as much
as $75,000 every two weeks to look the other way, according to some
reports.
   One count of the indictment says he ordered the release of
confiscated cocaine stored in bank vaults after the payment to his
aides of $1.5 million.
   On the charges of conspiracy to import cocaine to the United
States and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute,
Arce Gomez faces 15 years and a $25,000 fine on each count. He was
being held at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center
southwest of Miami.
   Arce Gomez took over the interior ministry after a July 1980
military coup against Bolivia's civilian government, and was
considered the regime's strongman. U.S. and Latin American
officials at the time called the takeover a "cocaine coup" financed
by traffickers, and Arce Gomez became widely known as "minister of
cocaine."
   He had a fleet of 11 airplanes, a mansion in the Bolivian drug
production center of Santa Cruz, a hacienda with a private lighted
airstrip and another mansion in La Paz.
   In December 1980, he came to the United States to try to improve
relations strained by rampant human rights abuses and cocaine
trafficking in Bolivia. The State Department made it clear that he
was not welcome and denied his request to lay a wreath at the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier.
   On March 1, 1980, CBS' "60 Minutes" program detailed Arce
Gomez's drug connections, and included accusations against him by
then-DEA chief Peter Bennsinger and U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini,
D-Ariz.
   Two days later DeConcini was told by the FBI that Arce Gomez had
put a contract out on his life, said the senator's aide, Amy
Silverman. DeConcini was guarded full-time for the next three
months, she said Tuesday.
   Under growing pressure from the United States and from within
the Bolivian military, Arce Gomez was forced out of office at the
end of March 1981. When civilian rule returned to Bolivia in 1982,
he fled the country for Argentina to avoid arrest.
   Argentina's military government arrested him following the 1983
indictment in Miami, but released him on a technicality only days
before civilian President Raul Alfonsin took over that nation's
reins in December 1983.
   Bolivia, meanwhile, stripped him of his citizenship when he
failed to show up at his trial on human rights abuses. Arce Gomez
had been a fugitive until his arrest Sunday.
   Seventeen other people were indicted. Five, including his former
top aide Rene Benitez, have pleaded guilty or been convicted.
Eleven others are fugitives, and one, Ana Rodriguez de Tamayo, has
pleaded innocent in the case after being extradited from Colombia
in October. 
UPse 12/12 1613  Bolivian appears briefly before U.S. magistrate 
By DON FINEFROCK
   MIAMI (UPI) -- Former Bolivian Interior Minister Luis Arce Gomez
appeared briefly before a U.S. magistrate in Miami Tuesday on drug
charges, six years after his indictment for conspiring to import
cocaine into Florida.
   The former government official, once described as his country's
minister of cocaine, did not enter a plea, and waived a bond
hearing until his next appearance, scheduled for Dec. 26 before a
magistrate in Fort Lauderdale.
   Arce Gomez, 52, is charged with one count of conspiracy to
import cocaine into the United States, and one count of conspiracy
to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute. If convicted, he
faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years and a possible fine of
$50,000.
   Courtroom security was beefed up for Arce Gomez' appearance,
which lasted about 20 minutes. He remained in federal custody
pending his next court appearance.
   The ex-army colonel, who at one time hired Nazi war criminal
Klaus Barbie to advise him on methods of torture, was captured in
a joint operation by Bolivian anti-drug police and U.S. drug agents
and deported Monday to the United States.
   "My understanding is he landed in Miami Monday evening and was
escorted by U.S. Marshals to a secure facility," said Amy Brown, a
spokeswoman for the Justice Department.
   U.S. government officials, who nicknamed Arce Gomez the minister
of cocaine,  charge that he headed a paramilitary squad that
confiscated drugs from Bolivian dealers who did not accept his
offers of protection from government authorities.
   Arce Gomez then turned the drugs over to smugglers, accepting
payment for the delivery. He reportedly sought the advice of
Barbie, who is now serving a life sentence in France for his war
crimes, on torture techniques and used those procedures on
political opposition leaders, officials said.
   Interior Minister Guillermo Capobianco told reporters Arce
Gomez, who was also wanted in Bolivia on murder charges relating to
a 1980 coup d'etat, was placed on a U.S. plane in Cochabamba and
flown to Miami without a formal extradition proceeding.
   Reading a prepared statement, Capobianco said that Arce Gomez
was captured in the city of Santa Cruz in an operation "carried out
by a commando unit of the UMOPAR (anti-drug police) in a combined
action" with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
   In Miami, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Diane Cossin said
Arce Gomez was indicted in the Southern District of Florida court
in 1983 along with 17 other people on allegations of cocaine
distribution conspiracy.
   Bolivian news reports said Arce Gomez, wearing soccer shorts,
was arrested Sunday on a ranch 3 miles from Santa Cruz while
attending a family party.
   Earlier, Capobianco said in an interview the deportation was "a
sovereign political act, that in no way comes under the status of
an extradition, which doesn't exist, because the old (law) that
exists (from 1901) does not involve narcotics trafficking."
   Capobianco said the deportation of Arce Gomez was a
"demonstration before the international community" of Bolivia's
commitment to combat drug trafficking.
   After Peru, Bolivia is the world's second-largest producer of
coca leaves, which are processed into cocaine in countries such as
Colombia before shipment to the United States and other consumer
nations.
   Colombia has extradited nine drug-trafficking suspects to the
United States in recent months despite a campaign of violence by
drug lords.
   Senate minority leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., said Monday in La
Paz that he and four Senate colleagues touring Bolivia
congratulated President Jaime Paz Zamora for ordering Arce Gomez's
deportation.
   Dole said Bolivia lost $12 million in U.S. aid because of its
failure to reach coca leaf reduction targets. He said Congress
expects to allocate $160 million to combat drug trafficking and aid
economic development in Bolivia in 1990.
   At the news conference, Capobianco said that Arce Gomez might be
returned to Bolivia if the Bolivian government requests it.
   The former colonel is accused of murdering dissidents during and
after the 1980 coup d'etat by Gen. Luis Garcia Meza, who himself
was overthrown in another rebellion after only 13 months in office.
Arce Gomez served as interior minister to Gen. Garcia Meza. 
APn  12/12 2028  Bolivia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By PETER McFARREN Associated Press Writer
   LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The Supreme Court president and a human
rights group on Tuesday criticized the government for turning over
a former Cabinet minister to the United States to face trial on
drug charges.
   Ex-Interior Minister Luis Arce Gomez, also a former army
colonel, was flown to Miami on Monday with the approval of
President Jaime Paz Zamora.
   Paz Zamora, who arrived in Argentina Tuesday for a two-day
visit, told reporters there, "It was a political decision that I
adopted personally." He said Arce Gomez faces numerous charges in
Bolivia and the government reserved the right to request his return
"when it believes that necessary."
   Paz Zamora had said in La Paz that because of corruption in
Bolivia's judicial system there was no assurance Arce Gomez would
stand trial here.
   Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the release of Juan Carlos
Lisboa Melgar, considered one of the country's top drug
traffickers, "for lack of evidence." And a Colombian chemist and
two other suspects accused of cocaine trafficking escaped from
detention over the weekend.
   Edgar Oblitas Fernandez, president of the Supreme Court, said
Arce Gomez should have been tried by Bolivian courts and he expects
"a convincing explanation from the government."
   A citizens' committee pressing for trials in Bolivia of Arce
Gomez and ex-President Luis Garcia Meza issued a statement saying,
"We believe the judicial norms of the country have been violated
since an extradition treaty with the U.S. does not exist."
   The Rev. Julio Tumiri, president of the Bolivian Human Rights
Assembly, said, "The government's decision represents an affront to
our sovereignty and a violation of Bolivian law which establishes
that crimes committed on Bolivian soil must be tried in the
country."
   Supreme Court charges against Arce Gomez range from theft to
genocide, involving the killings of critics.
   Arce Gomez appeared Tuesday in Miami before U.S. Magistrate
William Turnoff and was ordered held without bond on
drug-trafficking charges that could send him to prison for 30
years. An arraignment and formal bond hearing was set for Dec. 26.
   Gen. Garcia Meza came to power in a military coup in July 1980
and appointed Arce Gomez interior minister -- the top law
enforcement post.
   Garcia Meza resigned in August 1981 and both he and Arce Gomez
fled Bolivia before an elected government was installed in 1982.
   Arce Gomez, known as the "cocaine minister," went to Argentina.
He was arrested there under the Miami indictment, issued in 1983 on
two counts of drug trafficking, but was freed in December 1983 by
Argentina's outgoing military regime before a civilian government
came to power.
   He was arrested Sunday night at a ranch near Santa Cruz, 350
miles east of La Paz.
   Garcia Meza returned to Bolivia in 1988 and his lawyers said he
was ready to reply to charges against him. But he fled again when
the Congress early in 1989 accused him of theft and corruption. He
is sought by police but it is believed he has left Bolivia.
   Paz Zamora said in Buenos Aires that Arce Gomez and Garcia Mesa
tried to "set up a Bolivian government on the base of narcotics
trafficking, and unite the economic power of narcotics trafficking
with the political power of the state, which is what (some) want to
do today in Colombia." 
APn  12/13 0628  Arce Gomez 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   MIAMI (AP) -- A Bolivian colonel who allegedly protected cocaine
smugglers and organized death squads with the "Butcher of Lyon" is
being held without bond after being flown to the United States on
drug trafficking charges.
   A formal bond hearing will be held Dec. 26 for Luis Arce Gomez,
who faces up to 30 years in prison on a 1983 cocaine indictment,
U.S. Magistrate William Turnoff said Tuesday.
   Arce Gomez was detained at his ranch near La Paz, Bolivia, on
Sunday and spirited out of his native country on a U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration plane.
   "Bringing (Arce Gomez) to trial is a significant strike against
the danger posed to the United States by those who deal in
narcotics," Diane Cossin, executive assistant to U.S. Attorney
Dexter Lehtinen, said after the hearing.
   Arce Gomez was Bolivia's interior minister from July 1980 to
March 1981 under a military dictatorship supported by the country's
major drug traffickers. He was known as the "minister of cocaine."
   He and top aides are accused of setting up a protection racket
that charged drug traffickers as much as $75,000 every two weeks to
look the other way and let cocaine traffic continue.
   In addition, human rights groups have accused Arce Gomez of
running death squads that hunted down, tortured and killed hundreds
of enemies of the military government he served.
   Arce Gomez reportedly ran the death squads with help from
then-fugitive Nazi official Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon" who
later was captured and extradited to France and is now serving a
life term for "crimes against humanity."
   In March 1981 Arce Gomez was forced out of office. He fled to
Argentina in 1982 when civilian rule returned to Bolivia, was
arrested in Argentina after the 1983 indictment but later was
released on a technicality.
   At his hearing Tuesday he wore a T-shirt, slacks and sandals,
and said only "I understand," as he was read a summary of the
charges.
   He was being represented by Jose Quinon, one of the attorneys
who represented Colombian drug kingpin Carlos Lehder Rivas,
sentenced last year in Jacksonville to life in prison.
   President Bush has applauded Bolivia's role in Arce Gomez'
capture, a sentiment echoed by federal law enforcement officials
here.
   "It sends a message that they're willing to go after the
highest-level traffickers and send them here for trial," said
Richard Gregorie, the former top drug prosecutor in the U.S.
attorney's office in Miami. 
UPse 01/03 1519  `Minister of Cocaine' pleads not guilty, ordered
he... 
`Minister of Cocaine' pleads not guilty, ordered held without bond
   FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (UPI) -- Former Bolivian Interior Minister
Luis Arce Gomez, who has been described as his country's minister
of cocaine, pleaded innocent to U.S. drug charges Wednesday in
federal court.
   Arce Gomez, 52, entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Lurana
Snow, who ordered him held without bond pending trial. He has been
held at a federal prison in south Miami since he was brought to the
United States Dec. 11.
   The former army colonel is charged with one count of conspiracy
to import cocaine into the United States and one count of
conspiracy to posses cocaine with the intent to distribute. If
convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a
$50,000 fine.
   Arce Gomez, who once hired Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie to
advise him on methods of torture, was captured during a family
party on a ranch near Santa Cruz in a joint operation by Bolivian
and U.S. drug agents.
   He was transported to the United States without a formal
extradition proceeding. His capture came six years after he and 17
other people were indicted on drug charges by a Fort Lauderdale
federal grand jury.
   After Peru, Bolivia is the world's second-largest producer of
coca leaves, which are processed into cocaine.
   Arce Gomez headed a paramilitary squad that offered Bolivian
drug dealers protectionI5/8overnment authorities. He confiscated
drugs from those who refused the service, then sold the contraband
to other dealers, U.S. officials say.
   In his own country, Arce Gomez is charged with murdering
dissidents during and after the 1980 coup d' etat by Gen. Luis
Garcia Meza, who was overthrown in another rebellion after only 13
months in office. Arce Gomez served as Garcia Meza's interior
minister. 
UPn  01/04 0739  `Minister of Cocaine' threatened retaliation 
   FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (UPI) -- Former Bolivian Interior Minister
Luis Arce Gomez once threatened to inundate the United States with
cocaine in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed by
Washington, court documents said.
   Arce Gomez, 52, pleaded innocent Wednesday to cocaine charges
before U.S. Magistrate Lurana Snow, who ordered him held without
bond pending trial. He has been held at a federal prison in south
Miami since he was brought to the United States Dec. 11.
   Gomez, a former army colonel who has been described as his
country's "minister of cocaine," is charged with one count of
conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and one count
of conspiracy to posses cocaine with the intent to distribute. If
convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a
$50,000 fine.
   According to documents made public Wednesday, Gomez told
Bolivian cocaine trafficker Sonia Sanjinez De Atala in 1980, "The
gringos ought to take care of their borders because (Gomez) was
going to cover them with cocaine."
   De Atala is expected to be the key witness against him.
   The documents quote De Atala as saying, "Arce Gomez told me that
because the gringos had cut off financial aid to Bolivia, the
Bolivian government needed money. Therefore, he said, `We are going
to inundate the gringos with cocaine."'
   Arce Gomez also said he collected protection payments from
cocaine smugglers to help keep the Bolivian government solvent
after the United States cut off financial aid because of Bolivia's
lax drug enforcement, according to the documents.
   Arce Gomez, who once hired Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie to
advise him on methods of torture, was captured during a family
party on a ranch near Santa Cruz in a joint operation by Bolivian
and U.S. drug agents.
   He was transported to the United States without a formal
extradition proceeding. His capture came six years after he and 17
other people were indicted on drug charges by a Fort Lauderdale
federal grand jury.
   After Peru, Bolivia is the world's second-largest producer of
coca leaves, which are processed into cocaine.
   Arce Gomez headed a paramilitary squad that offered Bolivian
drug dealers protection, government authorities. He confiscated
drugs from those who refused the service, then sold the contraband
to other dealers, U.S. officials say.
   In his own country, Arce Gomez is charged with murdering
dissidents during and after the 1980 coup d' etat by Gen. Luis
Garcia Meza, who was overthrown in another rebellion after only 13
months in office. Arce Gomez served as Garcia Meza's interior
minister. 
ARREDONDO ALVAREZ, Jose  Bismarck.    
HCL  sales manager in Las Vegas, Los
Angeles, Eastern Europe, and  the  Middle  East.   he has basically
superseded LEHDER RIVAS in these regions.   In  April  1985 he was
responsible for buying coca paste, processing and  shipping  it 
from Peru-Ecuador, Peru-Colombia and Bolivia-Brazil-Colombia. 
Claimed to  be responsible for the Colombian prison escape of Ramon
MATTA BALLESTEROS.   From 1984-85 Arredondo worked with Hernan
CHAVEZ ANTELO, a Bolivian, who  also  helped  free Matta
Ballesteros.  The two were said to be involved with the OCHOA
family, Mexican trafficker Rafael CARO QUINTERO,  Miguel  Angel 
GALLARDO,  and  Ernesto  FONSECA  in  setting  up an organization
that would cultivate coca and process and refine HCL. and ship it
through Mexico to the USA.
AVIANCA AIRLINES.
National airline of Colombia. Rodney MENDEZ, believed to be
involved in money laundering and an alleged associate of Pablo
ESCOBAR has been (?) a vice president.
UPn  11/29 1811  Aviation experts arrive in Colombia By JOSEPH
COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- U.S. aviation and bomb experts are in
Colombia to help investigate a mysterious explosion that downed an
Avianca Airlines Boeing 727 jetliner, killing all 107 people
aboard, officials said Wednesday.
   A team from the Seattle-based Boeing Co. joined Colombian
experts to examine the remains of Flight HK 1803 and decifer the
"black boxes," which contain crucial flight information and all
radio communications between the pilots and the control tower,
civil aviation director Yasid Castano told RCN radio.
   The FBI also dispatched a bomb specialist to Colombia, the
Washington Post reported. The newspaper said the bomb specialist
was sent at the request of the Colombian government to help
determine whether the crash was caused by a criminal act.
   The American experts arrived amid reports that two leftist
politicians from the Patriotic Union Party had been slain in the
past 48 hours. Some 900 members of the organization have been
assassinated since 1985.
   Castano said it would be about two weeks before investigators
revealed the contents of the jetliner's black boxes, which
investigators hope will help them determine what caused the crash. 
   The 727 exploded Monday morning during a flight from Bogota to
Cali, crashing outside the capital four minutes after taking off
from El Dorado International Airport. All 101 passengers and six
crew were killed.
   Investigators have been unable to determine what caused the
powerful explosion. Witnesses said they saw two explosions, one
small blast followed 15 seconds later by a much larger one that
blew the plane into three large chunks.
   Observers and the press have discussed several possible causes
for the accident, including mechanical failure and a bomb attack by
drug cartel hitmen, but officials have refused so far to pinpoint
any specific cause.
   Hours after the crash, a caller claiming to be a member of the
drug mafia hit squad "The Extraditables" told Carocol Radio the
plane had been attacked because "there were five snitches aboard."
Police have been unable to determine the authenticity of the call.
   Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen Tuesday shot and killed Heriberto
Orjuela Rodriguez, the president of the leftist Patriotic Union
party in Mapiripan, Meta state, after breaking into his house at 2
a.m., press reports said.
   Orjuela Rodriguez was expected to win next year's mayoral
elections in Mapiripan, 180 miles southwest of the capital.
   In Monteria, anthropologist Boris Zapata Mesa, also a member of
the Patriotic Union, was shot to death by unidentified gunmen at 2
p.m. Tuesday, the Bogota newspaper El Espectador reported
Wednesday.
   Zapata Mesa, 32, a professor at Cordoba University, was killed
as he walked in the central plaza of Monteria, 325 miles northwest
of Bogota.
   Some 900 members of the Patriotic Union, a party made up of
leftist politicians and ex-guerrillas, have been assassinated since
1985.
   Authorities Tuesday identified the 11 peasants killed Sunday
night when some 15 men arrived at a party on horseback, forced
their way into the house and opened fire on the guests.
   The London-based human rights group Amnesty International
reported in September that 350 people had died this year in
Colombia in some 30 multiple killings.
WP   11/29       FBI Bomb Expert Joins Crash Probe; In Colombia,
... FBI Bomb Expert Joins Crash Probe; In Colombia, Anonymous
Caller Linked Explosion to Cocaine Cartel By Michael Isikoff
Washington Post Staff Writer 
   The FBI yesterday dispatched a bomb specialist to Colombia to
assist in the investigation of Monday's Avianca Airlines crash,
which killed the 107 people aboard.
   The bomb specialist was sent at the request of the Colombian
government to help determine whether the crash was the result of a
"criminal act," Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Milt
Ahlerlich said.
   Hours after the Boeing 727-100 jetliner went down near Bogota,
a caller to a radio station claimed that "The Extraditables" - a
group associated with the Medellin cocaine cartel - had blown it
up.
   The possibility that the plane was destroyed by a terrorist bomb
raised the prospect of a dramatic escalation in the 3-month-old war
between the government of Colombian President Virgilio Barco and
the drug traffickers. But U.S. officials stressed yesterday they
have no independent evidence to support the caller's claim, and
several officials seemed inclined to discount it.
   Investigators in Colombia said the jetliner lost cabin pressure
Crash "might have been caused by depressurization. . . ."   
-Col. Jorge Aurelio Gonzalez   shortly before its destruction and
that oxygen masks had dropped from the overhead consoles. A pilot's
log indicated a three-inch fissure had been found in the
23-year-old plane's fusealage three days before the crash, offering
an alternative explanation for the rapid loss of air pressure.
   "The explosion might have been caused by depressurization or by
other causes," Col. Jorge Aurelio Gonzalez, director of Colombia's
Civil Aviation operations, told reporters at a news conference in
Bogota. "A depressurization . . . made the use of oxygen masks
necessary."
   Colombian investigators reportedly found no evidence of blast
injuries to the bodies, although many were mangled in the crash.
   After the crash and before yesterday's reports, a spokesman for
the Colombian Pilots Association had told the Associated Press,
"Given the circumstances of the crash, I would say that it was a
terrorist act."
   The Boeing jet took off Monday at 7:13 a.m. from Bogota for
Cali, a Colombian city 200 miles to the west that is also home to
a rival drug cartel. Seven minutes later, witnesses reported seeing
flames and smoke pouring from the plane seconds before it exploded.
   The caller to Radio Caracol who claimed drug traffickers blew up
the plane said their targets were six alleged police informers on
board. The caller said the informers had told police the location
of the jungle hidout of Medellin cocaine leader Pablo Escobar,
whose home was raided by Colombian police Nov. 22.
   Escobar and one of his key associates, Jorge Ochoa, fled the
scene, narrowly escaping capture, police have said.
   The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation
Safety Board and Boeing have sent investigators to the crash site,
where wreckage is strewn over a two-mile area in a manner
consistent with a bomb explosion.
   One U.S. official said that a bomb attack has "not been ruled
out," but does not seem likely. "It would represent such a major
escalation" by the cartel, the official said. "I don't see what
they would have to gain from it."
AYERBE, Tulio Enrique. 
New  York  City  operator in the early days of the Cali cartel's
operation in that  city.    Caught  in  1980 and sentenced to 12
years in jail.
BANCO CAFETERO (Coffee Growers' Bank).
Colombian bank (located at Calle 28, 13 A-15, Bogota) used for
money laundering. The RODRIGUEZ OREJUELAS are involved, as are
Antonio BELTRAN and Hector MESA.
BANCO DE LOS TRABAJADORES (Workers' Bank?).
Colombian bank used for various money laundering activities by Jose
Hader ALVAREZ MORENO, the RODRIGUEZ OREJUELAS and Rafael FORERA
FETUCHA.
BANCO DE OCCIDENTE (Bank of the West).
Colombian bank (located at Carrera 5a, 12-42, Apdo Aereo 4409,
Cali) used for money laundering. The RIVERA GONZALEZ brothers and
Hector Fabio Ocampo Orango are involved.
BANCO GANADERO (Cattleman's Bank).
Bank in Leticia (main office is at Carrera 5A, 15-80, Bogota),
Colombia, involved in money laundering in connection with Evaristo
PORRAS and Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ.
BANZER OJOPI, Guillermo Willy
Bolivian landowner and coca producer and cousin of former Bolivian
president BANZER.  Associated with Roberto SUAREZ GOMEZ.
BARBOSA ESTUPINAN,  Jaime  and  Francisco  "Pacho".   
Formerly of Leticia. Reportedly sometime associate of Carlos LEHDER 
of the Medellin cartel, and at times tied to the Cali  cartel.   
The  Barbosa usually work with half-brother Tomas CARDENAS.  In
Leticia, the  Barbosa  did business with the PORRAS family and
their La Primavera  operation.    Reported  to  have  been involved
in the Tranquilandia operation.  Pacho  was  captured  in  February
1987 after he and Jairo OCAMPO LONDONO were involved in a shootout
with the military at Ocampo's ranch south of Medellin.    Since 
his  release  in  February 1987 after being picked up by the
military, Francisco apparently has moved to Haiti (or back to
Leticia) where he continues his trafficking career.  Jaime
apparently moved to Magdalena Medio to work with  Jairo  CORREA.  
Also operating in the Magdalena Medio were RODRIGUEZ GACHA and
Pablo ESCOBAR.
BARCO VARGAS, Jorge.
Brother of Colombian president Virgilio BARCO VARGAS. Former
international representative for Aerocondor Airlines.BARCO VARGAS,
Virgilio.

 

President of Colombia (elected 1986). He was trained in engineering
at MIT, and is thought of as an honest man, capable bureaucrat and
friend of the United States. Even though he is an opponent of the
traffickers (antidrug and proextradition), these issues did not
figure in his presidential campaign.

The Washington Times, Tuesday, August 22,1989; Medellin narcotics
kingpins in hiding by Michael Hedges, The Washington Times:
Colombian President Virgilio Barco's declaration of war against the
drug traffickers has undoubtedly driven the kingpins into hiding,
where they will be tough to locate and tougher to capture, U.S. law
enforcement officials said. So far, police have confiscated
millions of dollars in property belonging to the Medellin cartel's
three kingpins-Jorge Ochoa Vasquez, Pablo Escobar Gaviria and Jose
Rodriguez Gacha - and arrested more than 10,000 suspects. During
the nationwide roundup of suspected drug figures which began
Friday, Colombian authorities said they had arrested Eduardo
Martinez Romero, the reputed treasurer of the powerful Medellin
cartel, at a ranch in northwest Sucre province. President Barco has
declared a state of siege under which he has broad powers to
extradite indicted drug dealers. But U.S. experts are calling
events triggered by political assassinations in Colombia last week
as the most hopeful developments against cocaine cartels in many
months. There is always a straw that breaks the camel's back,
Thomas Cash, special agent in charge of Miami's Drug Enforcement
Administration  office said yesterday. That straw has already been
getting very heavy and this increases its weight. Richard Gregorie,
former Miami prosecutor who has spearheaded grand jury
investigations that lead to indictments of the cartel kingpins,
said: This is the best chance we've had in a long time unless the
Colombians pull a Humphrey Bogart -Ê round up the usual suspects 
until the furor dies down. Outrage among the Colombian people and
politicians has reached unparalleled heights after the death of
Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, a leading presidential contender from the
ruling party, who was killed by suspected drug-backed assassins at
a  political rally Friday. Up to 100,000 mourners Sunday walked
behind the coffin of Mr. Galan, many of them weeping and waving
white handkerchiefs, demanding his killers be brought to justice.
Yesterday, U.S. law enforcement officials said they have readied
plans to help the Colombians in any of several ways - from
providing material to sending SWAT-type teams to Bogota or Medellin
to assist in arrests. But most experts said national pride and fear
of political backlash probably would prevent the Barco
administration from seeking direct U.S. help against the
traffickers prior to arrests. As a matter of public pride, the
Colombian police are going to want to take these guys out, said Mr.
Cash. DEA officials said the most likely scenario for U.S.
assistance would have American law enforcement officials escort
those arrested out of Colombia and guard them once they arrive in
Florida. Most U.S. experts said the cartel members presumably have
gone to the mattresses in remote, heavily fortified and guarded
safe houses near their home base of Medellin. It is also possible
they have gone to hideaways in Colombia's jungle region where
leftist guerrillas could provide - for a price - formidable
security. Federal law enforcement experts said yesterday they are
hopeful that the crackdown in Colombia will continue until the
cartel members are captured or driven to another country. If the
latter happens - and the cartel members flee to a country where the
United States could obtain permission to act - the chances of a
raid by federal officers would increase. Such a raid could be
mounted by several U.S. law enforcement group, but probably would
be assigned to a squad of U.S. deputy marshals trained by Howard
Safir, associate director of operations for the U.S. Marshals
Service. In the past, these things have been planned by Safir's
people with the help of Customs guys, said Mr. Gregorie. It amounts
to a SWAT team. They make every effort to do it swiftly and
cleanly, and if resistance is met, they respond, he said. They are
prepared to do it and capable of doing it. Mr. Safir yesterday
declined to comment on specific training of his unit or what
tactics they might use. We have a crisis center we have put up, and
we are ready to do what we are directed to do by the attorney
general, Mr. Safir said. Basically, the State Department and the
ambassador [in Colombia or wherever the cartel members appeared[
will decide what the procedures are. Asked if he thought such an
operation was feasible under present circumstances in Colombia, he
said, I honestly don't know. I'm not on the ground there to know.
Another potential problem facing the United States -Êif the drug
cartel leaders are ever brought here - is reconstructing the
complicated grand jury cases brought against them many months ago,
officials said. Some of the indictments are over 3 years old. We
have got to be putting these cases together to ready to fry these
guys, said Mr. Gregorie. The DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Miami should have a task force working on this, and I know they are
not doing that now. There is nobody left in Miami who knows about
these cases. Mr. Cash conceded that several of the agents
originally involved in the cartel indictments have been
promoted of Miami or transferred, but he said there would be no
problem in moving ahead with the prosecutions. Those cases are
still quite valid,Ê he said. We feel good about those indictments.
We want these guys back here. It'd give us a warm, fuzzy feeling.
The Americas:
             Colombia Battles Cynicism as Well as Drugs           
  
---- By Peter Nares
09/08/89
WALL STREET JOURNAL (J)
   BOGOTA -- The world applauds Colombian President Virgilio
Barco's crusade against the Andean cocaine barons. But in  Colombia
itself there has been less applause, less admiration.
   For Colombians, the events of the past few weeks are all
decidedly deja vu. Skeptically they recall that, five years ago,
Mr. Barco's Conservative Party predecessor, Belisario Betancur,
launched a similar offensive against the cocaine mafia. Then, as
now, there were brave speeches and mass arrests. But subsequently
the traffickers slipped back to their mansions, and the narcotics
smuggling resumed. The war against the drug magnates fizzled out.
   Now, Colombians are asking, will Mr. Barco's current
anti-narcotics push end similarly? Also, and more embarrassingly
for the Liberal Party government, Colombians like Conservative
congresswoman Elvira Cuervo are wondering why their president
delayed so long in moving decisively against the cocaine barons. "I
don't think the fight against drugs was regarded as a pressing
issue," comments Ms. Cuervo. "The (anti-narcotics) decrees, which
have been announced, could have been brought in three years ago."
Bogota cartoonists have put it more bluntly. After the murder in
August of Senator Luis Carlos Galan, killed by gunmen reportedly
contracted by traffickers, one Bogota newspaper published a drawing
of the senator with the following epitaph: "A brave man -- cowardly
government." Mr. Galan, a declared foe of the traffickers, was the
favorite Liberal Party candidate in the current presidential
election campaign. He was murdered the same day that a police chief
was shot dead in Medellin, the center of the illegal cocaine trade.
The murders followed the killings of two judges who were hearing
cases allegedly involving the Medellin cartel -- Colombia's largest
drug ring. Colombians demanded and finally got a firm government
response to the traffickers' terrorism. Under new decrees,
narcotics suspects wanted abroad are now to be extradited (the
first, a reputed money launderer for the Medellin cartel, arrived
in Atlanta on Wednesday). Their property is to be confiscated and,
hence forward, they will have to establish the legitimate origin of
their fortunes. But Mr. Barco's legislative blitzkrieg against the
traffickers was announced only after he had permitted drug-related
violence to reach such dimensions that Colombia's continued
existence as a democratic state was imperiled by the cocaine lords.
Five years ago, during the Betancur administration, the scenario
read much the same. Mr. Betancur, a nationalist, had been reluctant
to extradite drug racketeers to the U.S. He did not seem overly
perturbed by the narcotics problem until traffickers forced his
hand by murdering his tough, anti-drug justice minister, Rodrigo
Lara. After the murder, Mr. Betancur -- the instant crusader --
pounced on the cocaine gangs and announced that extraditions would
be resumed. Today Colombians who have stood up overtly to the
cocaine gangs remain a minority. Notable among them is Justice 
Minister Monica de Greiff. She has intensified the battle against
drug dealers, despite their threat of "total war" against the
government if the current narcotics-control drive continues. Like
Ms. de Greiff, some judges have defied the gangsters. More than a
dozen Justice Department functionaries  have been killed this year.
They include Helena Diaz -- the Medellin judge who in July refused
to revoke arrest warrants issued for reputed Medellin cartel
bosses. Security Police Chief Gen. Miguel Maza also is a target of
the traffickers. He has disbanded death squad thought to be
financed by drug gangs, and in May he narrowly escaped death from
a car bomb. In the past 10 years, dozens of other police officers
have been murdered.  Journalists, too, have been on the hit list.
Among them was Guillermo Cano, editor of Bogota's El Espectador
newspaper. Mr. Cano was shot dead in December 1986, after
denouncing the drug gangs, and the paper was just hit by a bomb
last weekend; many dozens of people were injured, but miraculously
no one was killed.
   In common with most Colombians, many other journalists have been
more prudent. They have neither condemned nor condoned the cocaine
trafficking. For instance, in Medellin, the city's cautious
newspapers have left it to their counterparts in safer cities to
wage the anti-drugs fight. Some Liberal and Conservative
legislators have gone one step further, reputedly accepting
campaign funds from traffickers. According to unofficial estimates,
there may be as many as several dozen tainted deputies in congress.
In the Betancur  era at least, the drug gangs had little difficulty
infiltrating politics.
   Furthermore, neither the present government nor its predecessor
can claim an unblemished record as far s "hot money" is concerned.
It is no secret that some dollars, deposited without undue question
in local banks, may stem from the narcotics trade. Likewise, past
tax amnesties have favored both traffickers and the state's
coffers. Colombians fight the drug gangs with one hand while, with
the other, they accept their cash. Colombia, however, can hardly be
said to be a cocaine republic. At the most, some $1.2 billion in
narco-dollars -- no more than 20% of total dollar earnings -- are
believed to enter the country annually. This amount is sufficient
to tilt the balance-of-accounts favorably, but scarcely enough to
drive the economy.
   In a bid to please everybody, Mr. Barco has done nothing to rein
back Colombians who are actively trying to stamp out trafficking.
Yet at the same time, at least till August, he has not consistently
accorded priority attention to the narcotics question. Had he, for
example, been more committed to combating the problem, he would not
have named a succession of mediocre justice ministers (excepting
Ms. de Greiff, of course).
   Defensively, officials cite the seizure statistics as proof that
the authorities have in fact maintained their pressure on the
traffickers. Last year, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 14, the security forces
captured 18.6 tons of cocaine and destroyed 826 clandestine drug
laboratories. In addition, there was the 1987 extradition to the
U.S. of cocaine baron Carlos Lehder, now serving a life sentence in
Florida. But immediately following that extradition, the State
Council suspended extradition legislation. There were no further
extraditions until this week. Mr. Barco could have tried to
sidetrack the legal problem -- as he now has done -- with an
emergency extradition decree. Instead, he mothballed the issue.
Only when the traffickers murdered Mr. Galan did the government
take up the narcotics question anew in earnest. Following Mr.
Betancur's precedent, Mr. Barco declared war on the drug gangs
because they had declared war on him.
   The questions, thus, remain: Why did Mr. Barco, the belated
crusader, dither so long? Was it for fear of the security and
financial consequences of a clampdown on the "trade"? Or was it
just a matter of misplaced priorities? Whatever the answers, most
Colombians today probably would agree on at least one point: No
early end to the drug war is in sight.
             ---
             Mr. Nares is a free-lance writer living in Colombia.
La Opinion, Friday, September 29, 1989; Los planes de Barco tienen
que dar resultos pronto by Rafael H. Buitrago, La Opinion:
El pasado 5 de septiembre, al hablar al pa’s para presentar del
programa contra las drogas, el presidente George Bush calific— de
valeroso a su colega el presidente de Colombia Virgilio Barco. El
elogio de Bush fue un reconocimiento a la dr‡stica campa–a lanzada
por Barco Vargas contra los grandes carteles colombianos de las
drogas, a ra’z del asesinato en Bogot‡ del candidato presidencial
Luis Carlos Gal‡n, presumiblemente a manos de sicarios pagados por
los narcotraficantes. Ahora el presidente Barco est‡ de visita en
Estados Unidos. Ayer en la noche se entrevist— brevemente con el
presidente Bush, con quien trat— sobre el problema de las drogas,
el pacto internacional del cafŽ y las restricciones de exportaci—n
de armas de las usadas por los narcotraficantes. Antes de eso hab’a
visitado el Congreso y se habla reunido con William Bennett, el zar
del programa contra las drogas en Estados Unidos. Bennett llam— a
Barco hŽroe de la guerra contra el narcotr‡fico. Los congresistas
elogiarion su valent’a. Hoy, a mediod’a de Los Angeles, Barco
hablar‡ ante las Naciones Unidas. Es de esperar que el Presidente
colombiano reitere los puntos de vista de su Gobierno frente al
problema de las drogas. Insistir‡ entonces en que, con
independencia de la sangre que se derrama en Colombia, de nada
servir‡ si Estados Unidos y otras naciones consumidoras no hacen
algo para controlar su demanda de estupefacientes. Poco antes de
salir de Colombia, Barco rindi— un informe optimista a sus
compatriotas. Colombia marcha hacia la pacificaci—n, librando una
batalla decisiva contra el narcotr‡fico y pactando con las
guerrillas izquierdistas su desmovilizaci—n y transformaci—n en
partidos pol’ticos legales, dijo el Presidente en una alocuci—n
radiotelevisada el miŽrcoles en la noche. Colombia ha dejado de ser
vista como un pa’s de narcotraficantes que nunca lo ha sido ni lo
sera. Ahora todos los entienden que somos un pa’s valiente donde la
mayor’a de las personas son honestas y emprendoras, asegur— Barco
a sus sufridos compatriotas. Al hablar del pacificaci—n, el
mandatorio se refer’a al acuerdo de paz firmado el d’a anterior por
su respresante, el consejero presidencial para asuntos de la paz
Rafael Pardo, y los m‡ximos l’deres del grupo guerrillero
Movimiento 19 de Abril (M-19,) Carlos Pizarro Leong—mez y Antonio
Navarro Wolf. Pero Barco dej— atr‡s un pa’s sumido en la
desperaci—n, y sometido a un intermitente ataque terrorista. Desde
que comenz— la campa–a terrorista de los narcotraficantes, han
estallado 112 bombas en todo el pa’s, que han matado a ocho
personas, herido a 137 y causado pŽrdidas materiales superiores a
los cinco milliones de d—lares. Uno de esos atentados dinametros
semidestruy— el edificio del El Espectador, segundo diario en
importancia en el pa’s, cuyo editor Guillermo Cano fue asesinado el
17 de diciembre de 1986 por asesinos pgados por los
narcotraficantes. Las medidas adoptadas por el Gobierno no han sido
suficientes para contrarrestar los narcotraficantes esa escalada
terrorista. Por el contrario, los narcotraficantes han respondido
con extrema dureza a la posibilidad de ser extraditados y a medida
que se practican allanamientos y se confiscan propiedades de los
narcos, el terrorismo continu‡ golpeando a la poblaci—n. La Corte
Suprema de Justicia deber‡ en corto tiempo decidir sobre la validez
de las medidas del Gobierno. Se teme con raz—n que la corte decida
invalidarlas. Esto dejar’a al Gobierno maniatado para continuar su
lucha y con muy pocas probabilidades de ganar apoyo popular para
reinciarla. El acuerdo de paz con el M-19 fue el resultado de un
lento y paciente esfuerzo del Gobierno de Barco, quien hace
exactamente un a–o propuso un plan de paz, como cumplimiento de su
promesa inaugural de continuar e institutionalizar el proceso de
paz iniciado por el presidente Belisario Betancur, su antecesor. El
acuerdo podr’a extenderse a otros grupos guilleros izquierdistas,
como las prosoviŽticas Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
(FARC), el mao’sta EjŽrcito Popular de Liberaci—n (EPL) y otros
grupos menores como la guerrilla indigenista Quint’n Lame. Todos
Žstos junto con el M-19 y el procastrista EjŽrcito de Liberaci—n
Nacional (ELN) est‡n agrupados en la llamada Coordinadora Guerrilla
Sim—n Bol’var, y todos, con excepci—n del ELN han mostrado interŽs
en acogerse al plan de paz del presidente Barco. Es evidente sin
embargo que la paz con las guerrillas est‡ lejos de significar la
paz para Colombia. Eso al parecer lo han reconcido los propios
jefes guerrilleros. En efecto, al momento de firmarse el acuerdo de
paz el martes pasado, los jefes de M-19 sorprendieron a los
delegados del Gobierno con un ins—lito pedido: el de que el
Gobierno inicie un di‡logo con los narcotraficantes, para poner fin
a la guerra terrorista y erradicar de Colombia el cultivo y tr‡fico
de estupefacientes. Las opiniones en favor del di‡logo con los
narcos, cada vez m‡s numerosas, son sin duda la expresi—n del
desaliento y el cansancio del pueblo colombiano con el terrorismo
y la certeza de que el Gobierno  no est‡ capacitado para
contenerlo. Antes del M-19 instaron al Gobierno a dialogar al el
alcade de Medell’n, Juan G—mez Mart’nez, la propia ex ministra de
Justicia M—nica de Greiff, quien en su primera declaraci—n al
abandonar ese cargo hace una semana, sugiri— esa posibilidad al
Gobierno. La ex ministra no se limit— a insinuar el di‡logo, sino
que dej— entender que en los altos niveles del Gobierno hay
malestar con la forma como el presidente Barco ha conducio la
guerra al narcotr‡fico. Segœn De Greiff varios ministros se oponen
a la extradici—n, por razones filos—ficas. Si bien los
pronunciamientos favorables al di‡logo por parte de funcionarios
son hasta cierto punto comprensibles, la propuesta del M-19 es
ciertamenta sorpresiva. Los grupos de paramilitares que han asolado
el pa’s durante los œltimos ocho a–os, financiados por los
narcotraficantes, y con el apoyo de miembros activos y retirados de
las fuerzas militares, tuvieron como objectivo inicial
preciasamente exterminar a las guerrillas izquierdistas, y
especialmente al M-19. Ahora este grupo ha propuesto un plan
completo de incorporaci—n de los narcotraficantes a la vida normal
del pa’s, que comtempla el fin de la extradici—n de Žstos a Estados
Unidos y el indulto general por los delitos cometidos, desmonte
total de la infraestructura del narcotr‡fico. La firme posici—n del
Gobierno se basa en la supuesta posibilidad de capturar a los
m‡ximos del cartel de Medell’n, Pablo Escobar Gaviria y Gonzalo
Rodr’guez Gacha, quienes de acuerdo con las autoridades de polic’a,
est‡n pr‡cticamente cercados y podr’an caer en cualquier momento.
Si esto no ocurre pronto, y la corte decide anular los decretos de
emergencia, del Gobierno del presidente Barco tendr‡ que estudiar
otras opciones en su bœsqueda de una soluci—n al problema del
narcotr‡fico y del narcoterrorismo.
APn  10/11 1931  Latin Summit
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By MONTE HAYES
 Associated Press Writer
   ICA, Peru (AP) -- Police action against cocaine suppliers is
futile unless the United States and Europe reduce the demand that
drives the illicit trade, President Carlos Andres Perez of
Venezuela said Wednesday.
   Perez spoke on opening day of a summit of seven Latin American
presidents in this desert city that also is to consider expelling
Panama as the eighth member of the Group of Eight regional
organization.
   Panama's membership was suspended in 1988 after Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega arranged the dismissal of President Eric Delvalle,
who had tried to fire Noriega as military commander.
   The Venezuelan leader called Noriega's military rule a "masked
dictatorship." President Alan Garcia of Peru used his opening
remarks to "express publicly the Peruvian people's and the Peruvian
government's repudiation and condemnation of the military
dictatorship."
   Peru and Venezuela were expected to push for expulsion of
Panama, but diplomatic sources said Mexico and some other members
felt that would amount to meddling with the internal affairs of
another country.
   In his remarks on the drug trade, Peres said: "The more demand
grows in the north, the more production will grow in the south.
Police actions will be useless unless demand is reduced."
   Other opening statements also expressed support for Peru,
Colombia and Bolivia, which argue that President Bush's emphasis on
attacking the cocaine traffic at the source is not enough.
   The summit began the day after Presidents Garcia, Virgilio Barco
of Colombia and Jaime Paz Zamora of Bolivia invited Bush to attend
a drug summit in Latin America within 90 days. Bush accepted
immediately.
   Paz did not remain for the Group of Eight meeting because
Bolivia is not a member. Garcia and Barco were joined by Perez of
Venezuela, Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico, Jose Sarney of
Brazil, Carlos Menem of Argentina and Julio Sanguinetti of Uruguay
at the third summit since the regional organization was formed in
1987.
   The three-day meeting is being conducted in closed session at
the Hotel Las Dunas on the outskirts of Ica, a city of 350,000
people 185 miles southeast of Lima.
   An army battlion of 300 soldiers guarded the hotel and 3,000
plaincothes policemen circulated in the city in case of attacks by
Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla group that began fighting Peruvian
governments in 1980. The insurgency has cost 15,000 lives by
government count.
   A car bomb police blamed on Shining Path exploded Tuesday night
outside an auto parts store in residential Lima, wounding a guard
and blowing out the windows of the shop and nearby buildings.
   Police said rebels also shot and killed a woman candidate for
deputy mayor of a Lima district Tuesday night, firing three bullets
into her head as she stood behind the counter of her pharmacy.
   Official reports said 26 other people were killed in seven
incidents Tuesday night and Wednesday, including nine policemen,
two mayors and two rural mayoral candidates.
   Diplomatic sources at the summit said the presidents were
expected to give full support to Peru, Colombia and Bolivia in
their fight against traffickers. Colombia began a crackdown on
cocaine gangs Aug. 19.
   On Tuesday, Barco, Garcia and Paz promised "all-out war" on
cocaine in their countries, which produce 90 percent of the world's
supply.
   Their communique stressed that stopping the cocaine trade must
be accompanied by vigorous efforts against production and
consumption.
   That reflects reservations in Latin America about Bush's
emphasis on police and military actions to stop trafficking in the
Andean nations.
   President Sanguinetti of Uruguay told reporters before the
summit began Wednesday: "The problem is not only in Medellin. It is
also in the streets of New York City."
   His reference was to the Medellin drug cartel, which has been at
war with the Colombian government since the crackdown began in
August.
   The three-nation communique did not elaborate on differences of
approach, but Peru, Bolivia and Colombia have requested more U.S.
economic aid to provide alternative sources of income for hundreds
of thousands of peasants who live by growing coca, the raw material
for cocaine.
   "It's not a problem of donating some helicopters, sometimes very
old helicopters, or donating rifles or bullets," Garcia said
recently. "It would be enough to offer a good price and a guaranted
market for the products that could substitute for coca."
   He, Barco and Paz also said European leaders should attend the
drug summit. Garcia has said that, if the United States is
successful in slowing the flow of cocaine across its borders,
traffickers will shift their focus to Europe.
Reut 11/20 1837  COLOMBIA SEEKS MORE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AID
    BOGOTA, Nov 20, Reuter - Colombia's President Virgilio Barco
called on the European Community to provide more security
assistance and economic aid to help Colombia fight against the drug
lords.
    In a speech before visiting EC commissioner Abel Matutes, Barco
said Colombia would welcome more European bilateral aid for its
police and assistance to protect judges.
    Barco said concerted action with the EC was needed to crack
down on money laundering in major financial centres, the sale of
chemicals to process drugs and illegal arms trafficking.
    Matutes, in a speech, said the Community was studying measures
to hinder money laundering operations and was increasing the budget
to help non-EC countries in their anti-narcotics campaigns.
    Barco, noting Colombia needed support for economic stability,
added the EC should improve tariff treatment for Colombian products
and end what he termed its discriminatory treatment against
Colombia's exports of flowers and bananas.     The Community should
also promote foreign investment in Colombia. Other ways of helping
Colombia included EC support of a renegotiation of the world coffee
accord, Barco added.
UPn  12/03 1523  Colombia president leaves for Japan 
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- President Virgilio Barco left for
Japan Sunday hoping to increase trade with the booming Pacific
Basin and garner backing for Colombia's troubled economy, weighed
down by falling coffee prices and a costly war on drug traffickers.
   The 68-year-old leader, in the last year of a four-year term,
left in a presidential jet accompanied by his wife, Carolina,
Foreign Minister Julio Londono Paredes, and a team of economic
experts.
   "This visit has enormous importance for the strengthening of
ties between Colombia and the countries of the Pacific," Londono
told reporters as he boarded the jet.
   After stops in Los Angeles and Honolulu, the presidential
entourage was scheduled to arrive in Tokyo Tuesday afternoon. Barco
will meet with Emperor Akihito, Emperess Michiko, Prime Minister
Toshiki Kaifu and leading parliamentarians before returning home on
Friday.
   Barco is expected to sign cutural and commercial agreements with
Japan, including a plan for Japanese technical aid and $100 million
in credit for the construction of a pipeline system bringing
potable water to impoverished Bogota neighborhoods.
   Japan's Export-Import Bank, Eximbank, will provide the Colombian
Banco del Estado with an additional $100 million in credits, the
Bogota newspaper El Espectador reported.
   In the second semester of this year Eximbank loaned a total of
$450 million to Colombian institutions, including the Bank of the
Republic.
   The Japanese, however, refuse to send military aid to Colombia
to help in the cocaine war, which analysts predict will shave 1.5
percent off the 4.5 percent economic growth projected for 1989.
   "Japan cannot give any aid to armies or police ... since it
would be contrary to the policy of the archipelago," a Japanese
diplomat told reporters recently.
   Barco's trip is part of Colombia's effort to develop the
long-neglected Pacific coast region with links to Japan and other
expanding Asian economies.
   To compensate for falling coffee prices, expected to cost
Colombia some $500 million in much-needed foreign exchange this
year, the National Coffee Federation is hoping to market canned
liquid coffee in Japan under the name "Emerald Mountain,"
capitalizing on shifting Japanese tastes from traditional green tea
to the heavier brew.
   The Federation hopes to sign an agreement with Mitsubishi Corp.
to market some 2,000 tons of the coffee extract, which will be
canned by Coca-Cola Japan, El Espectador reported last week.
   Japan imported 600,000 sacks of Colombian coffee in 1988, and
purchases of the bean are expected to reach 1 million sacks this
year, the Federation reports said.
   Sales of Colombian flowers to Japan are also on the rise,
according to exporters. In 1988 Colombia exported almost $200,000
worth of carnations to Japan, and Japanese flower experts have
crossed the Pacific to train Colombian producers in agricultural
technology and Asian tastes.
   Japan, as a country which rose from the ashes of World War II to
become the second largest economic power in the world after the
United Stated, holds special interest for Colombia, which is
struggling to turn its natural and human resources to economic
advantage.
   "Any country that does not want to fall behind in the world race
to growth and progress must have a presence in the Orient, and
particularly in Japan," asserted an editorial in Bogota's El Tiempo
Sunday.
   The editorial examined the alliance in Japan between industry
and government, "instead of being adversaries, as happens in
Colombia," and compared the educational systems of the two
countries, claiming Japanese students attend school 240 days a
year, while Colombians go only 180 days.
   The editorial characterized Japan as "country, or rather a
civilization, which is taking possession of the world, and which
Colombia should get closer to." 
WP   12/10       Colombians Again Debate Extradition;Legislators
... 
Colombians Again Debate Extradition;Legislators Oppose Barco's
Policy By Douglas Farah Special to The Washington Post 
   BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 9 - President Virgilio Barco, facing a
political crisis caused by the escalating terrorism of cocaine
traffickers, is fighting a new challenge to the extradition of
suspected drug lords.
   The dispute now centers on whether the issue of extraditing
suspected drug traffickers to the United States should be on the
ballot in a national plebiscite scheduled for Jan. 21. Drug
traffickers favor including the issue and have vowed to escalate
their war of terrorism if it is not on the ballot.
   Extradition is viewed by the United States and Barco as vital to
combating drug trafficking. It is the one weapon drug traffickers
fear because it is more difficult to avoid prosecution in the
United States than in Colombia, where it has been relatively easy
to bribe or intimidate judges.
   Barco reinstated extradition following the assassination Aug. 18
of Luis Galan, a leading presidential candidate, at the hands of
the drug traffickers.
   In the past two weeks, the drug traffickers have carried out a
series of bloody attacks, including the bombing of an airliner Nov.
27, killing 107 people; Tuesday's murder of a judge handling key
drug cases, and Wednesday's bombing of the headquarters of the
secret police and court system, which left 52 dead and hundreds
wounded.
   Tuesday, the House of Representatives defied Barco by voting
overwhelmingly to include the extradition issue in the referendum,
and now the Senate must decide next week whether to follow suit.
   In response to the rebellion by members of his own party in the
House, Barco on Friday demanded the resignation of all 23 of the
nation's governors along with other state officials - all of whom
are appointed by the executive.
   Political analysts said the move is an attempt by Barco to
undercut the local bases of support and political machines of the
representatives who rebelled and to send a warning to the Senate.
   "It is a move to instill party discipline," said one government
official. "It was the most drastic reaction he could take against
their political careers."
   But many Colombians remain ambivalent about extradition and
fearful of the consequences.
   The crater and twisted masses of steel and blood-stained
concrete resulting from Wednesday's blast of more than 1,000 pounds
of dynamite bear testimony to what the cocaine kings are capable of
and have become almost the only topic of conversation.
   "I no longer know what to think," said one government official.
"I do not want my country taken over by narco-terrorists. But if we
continue to extradite, how many more innocent people will die? They
have already shown they are willing and able to kill people any
time and any place. The government cannot fight that."
   "People are terrified," said one veteran diplomat. "You can see
it in their faces. The bomb had a tremendous psychological impact."
   Drug traffickers, signing their communiques "The Extraditables,"
have vowed to escalate the violence even further if the Senate does
not approve the referendum on extradition.
   "We will only stop the war when the Senate decides to let the
people be our judge," said one communique made public Thursday.
"Otherwise, we will continue, as a response to the persecution and
abuses committed against us and our families."
   "The president should not fear what the Congress decides,
because Congress is the voice of the people, and the voice of the
people is the voice of God," the statement said.
   "These acts show what these criminals are capable of to get a
referendum to turn out in their favor," Barco said in a televised
address, referring to the impact of the bombings on the plebiscite.
"There would be no electoral campaign, only a campaign of terror to
achieve their goals." 
APn  12/11 1727  Colombia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By STAN YARBRO Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- President Virgilio Barco held emergency
meetings with members of his Liberal Party on Monday amid newspaper
speculation that drug traffickers would try to overthrow him.
   A bombing campaign blamed on cocaine cartels has killed at least
188 people, and members of congress have been accused of accepting
bribes to try to thwart Barco's policy of extraditing drug suspects
to the United States.
   Enrique Santos Calderon, an editor of the Bogota newspaper El
Tiempo, wrote in a column published Sunday that the drug cartels
may try to take control by installing a junta similar to Manuel
Noriega's government in Panama. Noriega has been indicted in the
United States on drug trafficking charges.
   In a column Friday in the city's other leader newspaper, El
Espectador, Maria Teresa Hernan said Colombia could wind up with a
"drug trafficker coup carried out with the support of colonels
allied with the mafias."
   Colombian and U.S. officials have said the top drug lords have
eluded capture because of military corruption.
   Barco called emergency meetings with his interior minister,
former presidents and congressional leaders Monday to find a
solution to the crisis, a presidential spokesman said.
   The meetings would take place throughout the week, the spokesman
said on condition of anonymity. He gave no further details.
   One of Barco's main objectives was to repair damaged relations
with congress and prevent the Senate from approving a national
referendum on his extradition policy.
   A congressional committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on
whether to send the bill to the Senate, which could either act on
the legislation before the end of its term Friday or chose to
ignore the bill. Colombian law requires the Senate to act by
Saturday.
   The government has extradited nine drug suspects to the United
States since it began a crackdown on the cocaine cartels following
the Aug. 18 assassination of a leading presidential candidate.
   The House of Representatives voted 109-4 on Dec. 5 to approve a
national referendum on extradition.
   Barco administration officials and newspapers denounced the vote
as an ambush of the government's policy. Interior Minister Carlos
Lemos Simmonds has said a referendum would lead to voter
intimidation and more violence by the cartels.
   El Espectador suggested Monday that traffickers had paid House
members to vote for the referendum. Colombia's drug crisis resulted
from "the magnitude of drug trafficker's corruption that has
reached the congress in such a disgraceful way," it said in an
editorial.
   Former President Carlos Lleras Restrepo said in an editorial for
Nueva Frontera, a weekly magazine he owns, that the country faced
an offensive by criminals "offering millions of dollars" to
influence the legislative process.
   Lleras, a member of the Liberal Party, was president from 1966
to 1970.
   Since the government crackdown on the drug cartels began, 203
bomb attacks have been blamed on traffickers.
   The two most recent attacks were the worst, the Nov. 27 bombing
of an Avianca Airlines 727 that killed all 107 people on board and
a Dec. 4 truck bomb that killed 52 and wounded 1,000.
   Plinio Apuleyo wrote in a column Monday in El Tiempo that the
gulf between the Colombian people and their political leaders has
never been wider.
   He said many political representatives did not seem to share the
public's pain over the attacks. "Because of corruption and
cowardice, many of our representatives are prepared to negotiate
even with the devil," Apuleyo said.
UPn  12/12 0030  Colombia to make key decision on extradition 
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Colombia's Senate must decide this
week whether to let the public vote next month on an extradition
treaty allowing suspected drug lords to be sent to trial in the
United States.
   The Senate has until Saturday, when the current term ends, to
vote on a legislative package, which also includes constitutional
reform and a peace pact with the leftist rebel group.
   Senate failure to deal with the issue by the deadline could
torpedo the constitutional reform and the cease-fire with the
rebels.
   The House of Representatives rebelled against the administration
of President Virgilio Barco and Liberal Party leaders last Thursday
by tagging an extradition plebiscite onto the national referendum
scheduled next month.
   If a national plebiscite is called, the administration fears
voters will succumb to drug lord intimidation and reject
extradition, denying the government its most powerful weapon
against the cocaine traffickers.
   Last week, the government called for the resignations of all
governors in hopes of pressuring senators up for re-election by
naming hostile governors in their states if they refuse to support
extradition.
   Barco also sought talks with Conservative Party leader Misael
Pastrana to gather more support in the Senate.
   The president, whose terms ends in August, said he would defy
renegade congressmen's calls that he resign, while Liberal Party
chief Julio Cesar Turbay threatened to quit unless the Senate
rejected the extradition question.
   Less than 24 hours after the House decision, suspected drug
lords responded by rocking Bogota with a half-ton of dynamite,
destroying the secret police headquarters and leaving 63 dead and
almost 1,000 wounded.
   The drug traffickers later vowed to continue the bloodshed until
the Senate approved the extradition referendum.
   "`For peace,' they declared . . . and all those pious
explanations were pulverized, hours later, by 500 (kilograms) of
dynamite," read an editorial in El Tiempo newspaper Monday.
   Barco is helpless to block a Senate approval. The president can
refuse under Colombian law to sign the legislation, but Senate
President Luis Giraldo will most likely be forced to pass the bill
into law.
   Extradition, decreed by Barco Aug. 18 after a string of
drug-related assassinations, forms the backbone of the government's
offensive on the powerful drug rings. Nine Colombians have been
sent to the United States to face drug charges since the beginning
of September.
   A cartel-linked hit squad, "The Extraditables," declared war on
the nation in August to halt the extraditions, exploding more than
260 bombs and killing at least 180 people in three months.
   In violence over the weekend, a journalist who criticized
organized crime was shot and killed as he ate lunch with his
family.
   Jose William Espejo, director of the El Tabloide de Tulua
newspaper, was in a restaurant with his family in Tulua, 150 miles
southwest of the capital in Valle de Cauca state, when gunmen burst
into the dining room Sunday and shot him six times, killing him
instantly, police said.
   Police said they had not established motives for the killing and
had not captured any suspects.
   Espejo, the 13th journalist killed this year in Colombia,
recently wrote an editorial criticizing organized crime for the
widely circulated newspaper in central Valle del Cauca state, radio
reports said.
   Television journalist Jorge Enrique Pulido died Nov. 8 in Bogota
of gunshot wounds suffered in an attack Oct. 29. Pulido had been an
outspoken critic of the cocaine mafia. 
BARRERA DOMINGUEZ, Humberto. 
Lawyer of Jorge Luis OCHOA.
BARRICKLOW, Denise.
UPI journalist.BATEMAN CAYON, Jaime.
Co-founder of M-19 organization; previously associated with FARC.
His political alliances are with Cuba (Castro), with whom he and
Guillot Lara may have been involved in dealings with drug
traffickers.
BAUMAN, Kit
Journalist with UPI (United Press International).BECKER, Ingrid.
UPI journalist.
BELTRAN, Antonio.
Money launderer associated with the Banco Cafetero.
BENITEZ,  Rene  and   Armando.    
Dangerous  traffickers,  Cuban  born, naturalized US citizens.  The 
would  use the Alberto OTERO CASTELLANOS estate at Cartagena as a
hideout.  In  February 1982 Rene Benitez was responsible for murder
of two DEA  agents  who  were  seeking information of RODRIGUEZ
PUENTE.
They apparently have the support of the Medellin cartel.
BETANCOURT, Neal.
Jacksonville, Florida lawyer of Jorge de la Cuesta Marquez.
BETANCUR CUARTAS, Belisario.



President of Colombia (elected 1982); opponent of traffickers.
Appointed Rodrigo LARA BONILLO to Justice Minister in 1983.
After the election of Virgilio Barco in 1986, he retired from
public life, but still reatins a permanent security force at his
Bogota home.
 (from Grolier's Academic American Online Encyclopedia-accessed
through Compuserve):
Belisario Betancur, b. 1923, became president of Columbia on May
30, 1982. Betancur was reared in extreme poverty but was able to
attend the university in Medellin, where he studied architecture
and law. He worked as a journalist and became active in the
Conservative party. He was variously a member of the Colombian
House of Representatives, minister of labor, and ambassador to
Spain. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency in 1962,
1970, and 1978. A split in the opposition Liberal party enabled him
to win the 1982 election. Presiding over a liberal coalition,
Betancur proposed a new amnesty law aimed at ending almost 40 years
of fighting between the government and leftist guerrillas. In late
1982 and in the early months of 1983 that plan was put into effect.
More than 300 political prisoners were released and two of the main
insurgent groups agreed to a cease-fire.
 BETANCUR CUARTAS, Juvenal.
The  former  President  of  Colombia's brother; has supposedly been
involved in trafficking activities with Jose Hader ALAVREZ
MORENO.BOTERO MORENO,  Hernan.
Medellin  currency  dealer, indicted in November 1985 for
laundering about $55  million  in  cartel money in the Landmark
Bank, Plantation, Florida.  He had been  previously  a major source
of ether used by Medellin traffickers.  Extradited to the USA in
1985 and serving 30 years.
BOTERO, Jaime
Operates in the Martha Upegui de URIBE operation. Related to Juan
David BOTERO.
BOTERO, Juan David
Attorney  and  fixer  for the OCHOA VASQUEZ organization.  Related
to Jaime BOTERO.
BRANIGIN, William.
Washington Post foreign correspondent.
BRINKLEY, Joel.
Reporter for the New York Times.
BUILES, Miguel Angel, Jaime and Joaquin.  
All triggerhappy, with Joaquin, a  wealthy  Antioqueno  money 
launderer,  apparently  interested  in  1988 in becoming top dog in
the Medellin cartel.  Joaquin's real estate agency was the center
of a 1982  narcotics  related  gunbattle.    Previously allied to
Fabio OCHOA RESTREPO.  The  Builes  have  bought  the  biggest 
hotels on San Andres Island.  Joaquin is considered very dangerous, 
and is a drug user.  Presently involved with Medellin trafficker
William HALABY.
BUITRAGO, Rafael H.

Journalist for La Opinion (Los Angeles Spanish language newspaper).
BUSTAMANTE, Carlos A.   
A  bagman in the Pablo ESCOBAR, Federico VAUGHAN, Barry SEAL case
occurring in Nicaragua  in  June 1984.  Bustamante served as a Dade
County outlet  for  Pablo  ESCOBAR  and  reportedly  moved  a half
ton of cocaine a week.  Convicted in 1985,  he  is  serving a 40
year sentence in the USA.
CABRERA SAMUDIO, Flavio.   
On  the  1987  GOC list of the 128 most wanted traffickers at large 
in  Colombia.    Arrested  near  Cartagena at La Florida
municipality in January 1987.
CABRERA SARMIENTO, Jose  Antonio.   
An independent operator operating out of Bogota, Don "Pepe"  has 
a  long  history.    A  close associate was Severo Enrique ESCOBAR
ORTEGA  of  Bogota  who  was  extradited  to  the USA in 1986.
Worked with early cocaine traffickers Griselda Blanco de TRUJILLO,
the  Godmother" of cocaine traffickers who started in the 1970s and
was arrested in Irvine, California in 1985  and  sentenced  to  35 
years.   (Her sons, Dixon,
Snyder and Osvaldo TRUJILLO BLANCO  began  serving  time in
California in 1985
for large quantities of  cocaine.)    Cabrera  was  also involved
with Alberto BRAVO AGUDELO, Griselda's deceased boyfriend,  who
first appeared in a cocaine case in the USA in 1974.  Cabrera was
extradited to the USA and sentenced to a long jail term.
CADAVID, Marcos. 
Extradited to USA in 1985 and convicted of trafficking.
Member of a notorious extended trafficking  family.  Known to have
worked with
both RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA of  Cali  and  Jorge  Luis  OCHOA VASQUEZ
of Medellin.
Worked in the OCHOA VASQUEZ operation in Miami.
Courthouse Security Heavy
             Accused Drug Kingpin Given VIP Escort              ---
By Philip Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
02/23/85
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 04: METRO
TX           
   Traffic was halted and onlookers gawked yesterday as a black
limousine escorted by police motorcycles and heavily armed guards
sped from an underground garage at the U.S. District Court building
in Washington.
   The caravan, with flashing red lights and screaming sirens
usually used for high government officials and visiting heads     
     of state, carried a 43-year-old Colombian citizen who, these
days, is considered a Very Important Person by the Justice        
  Department.
   He is Marcos Cadavid -- not a dignitary, but an accused  South
American cocaine kingpin. Cadavid was extradited from Colombia last
month to stand trial here March 11. His extradition pleased U.S.
law enforcement officials but angered major Latin drug dealers.
   The extradition is part of a general, U.S.-sponsored crackdown
on the international drug trade from the Southern Hemisphere that
reportedly has brought threats of retaliation from big-time South
American cocaine exporters. The U.S. attorney's office here refuses
to discuss details of the security surrounding Cadavid. A law
enforcement source said, however, that U.S. intelligence has
reported that hitmen have been dispatched to this country in the
wake of the stepped-up drug enforcement effort.
   Whether cocaine traders hope to assassinate a key drug defendant
such as Cadavid or inflict violence on U.S. law enforcement or
court personnel is unclear, according to the source.
   But such an attack presumably would serve as a warning to
defendants who might otherwise be tempted to cooperate with       
   federal prosecutors.
   Security arrangements surrounding court appearances here by
Cadavid are said to be extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented,
according to courthouse regulars. On at least two occasions,
Cadavid has been whisked to court for pretrial hearings,
transported in a limousine with smoked-glass windows and escorted
by U.S. Park Police motorcycles. During one of his visits in
mid-January, police with automatic weapons were visible on the
courthouse roof. Yesterday, security measures inside the courtroom
of District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, who has custody of the Cadavid
case, included about a dozen armed U.S. marshals, some of whom sat
facing spectators, with their backs to the courtroom proceedings.
   Federal prosecutors have charged that Cadavid and others
smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the Miami area     
     through a food distribution warehouse used as a front. Much of
the cocaine allegedly was purchased and distributed through a
Washington-based network of drug dealers, according  to prosecution
testimony.
CAICEDO JURADO, Franco Guido.
Judge responsible for freeing Pablo ESCOBAR GAVIRIA when he was
held on drug charges in 1976. Related to Panamanian contact Eduardo
Jose CAICEDO, possibly related to Cali trafficker Giovanni CAICEDO
TASCON.
CAICEDO, Eduardo Jose.
Principal  cartel  contact in Panama and launders there.  Judge
Franco Guido  CAICEDO  JURADO  freed  Pablo Escobar when held on
drug charge in 1976.    Perhaps  related  to  Cali trafficker
Giovanni CAICEDO TASCON,  and  associate  of  RODRIGUEZ   OREJUELA 
and  Eduard  TESCON  MORAN, Giovanni's uncle, who had connections
to the Torrijos family in Panama but who is now retired.
CALDERON, Julio.   
Early  trafficker  who  with the COTES brothers bought Aerocondor
air lines.  It was run  by Melvin MILLON and trafficking sons.  The
airlines international rep was Jorge BARCO VARGAS, brother of
President Barco.
Calderon bought property in  Key  Biscane  and  luxury hotels in
Barranquilla.
His fortunes have waned, and he  now  works  the Atlantic Coast and
is tied to the OCHOA clan.
CALI CARTEL.
Based in Cali, Colombia, this is one of the major narcotics
trafficking organizations.
Cali Drug Cartel Avoids Crackdown; Powerful Traffickers Operate
Differently From Medellin Rivals.
The Washington Post, October 05, 1989, FINAL Edition By: Douglas
Farah, Special to The Washington Post
Section: A SECTION, p. e01
Story Type: News Foreign
Line Count: 110    Word Count: 1200
MEDELLIN,  Colombia  -   While leaders of the notorious cocaine
cartel that made  this  bustling  city its headquarters for years
have been targeted by law   enforcement   officials   as  the 
nation's  primary  enemies,  their counterparts  in  the  equally 
powerful  Cali  cartel  have almost escaped notice.
According  to  residents  in  both  cities,  as  well as Colombian
and U.S. narcotics experts, the two cartels, which together supply
80 percent of the cocaine  in  the  U.S.  market,  operate  in 
fundamentally different ways, leading  the government to attack the
Medellin group while leaving the Cali operation almost untouched.
  
   The  Cali  cartel, based in a city of 1.5 million on a coastal
plain, is believed  to  control  the lucrative New York market and
has sometimes come into conflict with the Medellin group. The two
cartels fought a bloody turf war last year that claimed scores of
lives.
   "The  Medellin  people  are much more violent. They are
operating in the Stone  Age,  killing whoever gets in their way,"
said one Colombian expert. "The  Cali people are much more elegant.
They buy people, they buy into the system, they do not offend. They
buy police, politicians, whole towns."
   While  the  government  has  offered  $250,000  rewards  for
information leading  to  the  arrest of Pablo Escobar or Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha of the Medellin  cartel  and has widely publicized
the seizures of dozens of their opulent  properties, the Cali
cartel's leaders, such as Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez  Orejuela, 
are  relatively  unknown to the public. No reward has been offered
for information on them.
   One  senior  Colombian military officer said the government
would target the Cali cartel, but added, "We cannot do everything
at once."
   While  some  of  their  luxurious  properties,  such  as the
posh Ciudad Jardin,  six  miles  south  of  Cali,  have  been 
taken  over  by  police, knowledgeable residents say known
traffickers and their families are openly back in the city.
   Several  experts  said  that the leaders of the Medellin cartel
made two fundamental  mistakes  that  made them the focus of the
government's latest crackdown.
   The  first  was trying to enter the formal political structure--
Escobar was  an  alternate  deputy  to  the  national  Congress  in 
1982 but never served--while  Cali  cartel  members  have  been
content to stay behind the scenes.  Members  of the Medellin cartel
were also behind the formation two months  ago  of  the  National 
Restoration Movement (Morena), described by authorities as a
neo-fascist, paramilitary organization that is not legally
registered.
   "Morena was born in the bowels of drug trafficking and
narco-terrorism," said  Gen.  Miguel  Maza  Marquez, commander of
the Security Administration Department. "They should not be given
legal status as a political party."
   The  second  mistake,  the sources said, was for leaders of the
Medellin cartel,  who  largely  come from poor families and want to
be accepted into society,  to  spend  enormous amounts of money
trying to buy their way into the closed, race-conscious upper
class. 
   "Drug  traffic  caused  a certain type of social revolution,"
said Mario Arango,  a  city  councilman  in Medellin who advocates
the legalization of cocaine  because  he  does not believe
repression of drug use can work. "It allowed  the  lower  class  to 
enter  the consumer society, which was very closed. Now the new
rich have dark skins."
   The  Cali leaders are largely from upper middle-class families
with good standing in society, and did not have to fight to be
accepted.
   Said  a  wealthy  businessman  in  Medellin,  "Here,  they were
resented because  they  showed  off  their  money,  but they did
not fit. It is very difficult to acquire all the manners and
behavior in just one generation."
   When  the  Medellin  people  were  frozen  out  of  the formal
political structure, they turned their violence, long a tradition
in both cartels for internal  feuds,  on  those  outside.  The 
most  violent  are  Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha, both reported to
be heavy cocaine users, the experts said.
   "They  wondered  why politicians were willing to take their
money during the  campaigns,  then  not  let  them  participate in
the system," said one lawyer. "The double standard angered them." 
   The  Medellin  cartel  is widely blamed for the assassination
Aug. 18 of Luis  Carlos  Galan ,  the leading presidential
candidate, as well as the killings  of  other  prominent 
officials.  Galan  had  attacked Medellin traffickers by name,
drawing a death sentence from the cartel, according to the experts.
   After  Galan's  murder,  the  government  launched  a 
crackdown, and suspected  drug  traffickers  responded  by  setting
off more than 30 bombs across  town.  Since  then,  this
flourishing city of 2 million people, the industrial  center  of 
Colombia,  has  been  re-evaluating its ambivalent, long-time
relationship to the Medellin cartel, and the business most people
dislike but often profit from.
   "We were all surprised (by the bombings), because if the
Medellin cartel loves   anything,   it  is  their  city,  their 
home,"  said  one  leading businessman. "I would say 99 percent of
the people oppose drug trafficking, but  the effect of money has
been accepted by an important number of people in the city and the
country."
   "In  this sense we all erred," said Juan Gomez, mayor of
Medellin, in an interview.  "We  thought  the business was men
exporting drugs and bringing back  dollars,  and that it was a
problem for consumers, not us. Because of the money, we supported
or at least tolerated them. It was a mistake."
   Gomez,  who  advocates talks between the government and drug
traffickers to   end   the  bloodshed,  said  he  had  received 
telephone  calls  from representatives  of  the Medellin cartel
offering to open the dialogue, but that  he  did  not have the
authority to speak, and the national government refused to talk to
the traffickers.
   "Every war ends through dialogue eventually," Gomez said. "So
why not go straight to dialogue?"
   But  in  one  section  of  Medellin, there is no ambivalence
toward drug traffickers.
   In  the Pablo Escobar neighborhood, perched on the edge of
Medellin, the drug lord built and donated 500 two-bedroom brick
houses with running water and  electricity  to families that before
were living on the city's garbage dump.
   "He  is the only one who ever gave these people anything. The
government never did anything for them," said Miguel Angel Ramirez,
67, as he surveyed the  well-lit  streets. "They love Pablo very
much. Before coming here they lived in cardboard hovels, on a
garbage heap. They had nothing. That is why many people work with
Pablo and help him with his business."
   Residents  are  angry because Escobar was forced to go on the
run before he  could  complete his project, which called for
building a total of 1,000 houses,   schools,   churches   and  
football   fields   for   the  city's disenfranchised.
   Despite  the  rash of bombing in both cities in the past month
and heavy military patrols, neither Medellin nor Cali is a Latin
American Beirut.
   As  residents,  indignant  at  the way their prosperous,
bustling cities have been portrayed, quickly point out, the bombs
wounded only a handful of people and were primarily aimed at
businesses linked to the government.
   Many  have  said that the bombs, most of which only blew out the
windows of the targeted buildings, were not all the work of drug
traffickers.
   "I  call  these  things  terrorism, but we do not know with
certainty in every action, who our enemy is," said Helena Herran de
Montoya, governor of Antioquia province where Medellin is situated.
CAPTIONS:  Colombian  soldier  watches  street  activity from
downtown Cali rooftop.
   Explosives experts sift through rubble of Bogota bank after
bombing.
NAMED PERSONS: ESCOBAR, PABLO; GACHA, GONZALO RODRIGUEZ; RODRIGUEZ,
MIGUEL;
   GOMEZ, JUAN
ORGANIZATION NAME: cali cartel
DESCRIPTORS: Colombia; Narcotic ,drug violations; Organized crime 


CALLE LOPEZ, Andres.  
Arrested in 1984.  In 1987 was freed by authorities although wanted
in the USA.  Tied to Medellin cartel.
CAM, Hubert.
United Press International journalist.
CAMPBELL, James R.
Journalist with UPI (United Press International).
CANO ISAZA, Guillermo.



Former editor of El Espectador and vocal critic and opponent of
traffickers. He was assassinated, presumably on the orders of the
Medellin cartel (in retalation for a series of articles that had
been written about them) on December 17, 1986. His family continues
to operate the paper, which continues to oppose the traffickers.
CARDENAS GUZMAN, Luis. 
Peruvian trafficker arrested with HCL shipment in May 1975, and
shortly thereafter was arrested in a coca paste bust in Mocoa.
CARDONA SALAZAR, Rafael.
Miami distribution organizer for Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ. Assisted
Fabio OCHOA VASQUEZ with planning the assassination of Barry SEAL.
CARDONA VARGAS,  Jaime.    
Early  Medellin  trafficker working in USA and number two man until
captured  near  Medellin  in  October 1977, with some 530 kilos of
HCL that  had  just  arrived  from  Santa  Cruz del Guaviare. 
Little subsequently heard of Cardona  Vargas  and  his
organization, which apparently has some times to Alfredo GOMEZ
LOPEZ, another early Medellin operation.
CARILLO, Fernando.  
Drug store  chain owner who obtains raw materials for cocaine
refining.  Former owner of Deportivo Independiente Santa Fe of
Bogota. Indicted for drug shipments to Florida.    The  club is now
held by Silvio and Fanor ARIZABALETA  ARZAYUS  drug  traffickers 
from  Valle  del  Cauca.  Diego CARRILLO, a brother, died  in  1983 
following  an  explosion  at one of their cocaine processing plants
in Neiva, Huila.
CARLINI, Roberto Peter
Medellin trafficker extradited to the USA on October 14, 1989.
UPse 10/14 1327  Alleged drug trafficker extradited to Florida 
   ORLANDO, Fla. (UPI) -- A Colombian national sought for three
years by state law enforcement authorities for cocaine trafficking
was extradited to Florida early Saturday, state law enforcement
officials said.    Roberto Carlini, 38, the son of Italian
immigrants arrived in Orlando in the custody of U.S. Marshals
shortly after midnight, Statewide Prosecutor Pete Antonacci said
Saturday. Carlini is one of three alleged drug dealers linked to
the Medellin Cartel who were released by the Colombian government
to face federal drug charges in the United States.
   "I would say he's a key player as far as both state and federal
authorities are concerned," Antonacci said, adding that Carlini
faces federal charges of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to
possess marijuana.    But the state charges Carlini faces are more
serious, Antonacci said.    Andy Zelman, an assistant statewide
prosecutor in the Orlando office, said Carlini is wanted on charges
of racketeering, conspiracy to violate the racketeering act,
trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The
trafficking charges carry a 15-year mandatory sentence. Carlini
faces a total of 115 years in state prison if convicted.
   The charges stem from activities in 1985 involving over 1,000
kilos of cocaine, Zelman said. The case was investigated by the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement and charges were filed by the
state attorney's office in Palm Beach in 1986, Zelman said.
   The federal charges are more recent, he said.
   "He's a good-sized fish. No question about it," Zelman said,
adding that two of Carlini's properties in Palm Beach were seized
by state authorities.    Zelman said Carlini was a distributor for
the Donado family, who are also under indictment in Florida.
According to Zelman, Carlini distributed loads flown in by Frank
Brady, an American who was also indicted by the statewide
prosecutor's office.
   Antonacci said Carlini's is the first extradition to Florida
since 1986, when Jose Cabrini Sarmiento, a key figure in the Carlos
Lehder ring, was brought to Florida and tried on drug trafficking
charges. Cabrera is in Florida State Prison in Starke, serving a
60-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking.    "We became
aware he was taken into custody in Colombia six, seven weeks ago,
Antonacci said. "We prepared the extradition documents and sent
them to Washington, where they were translated and sent to
Colombia."    Antonacci said he "didn't seek any public profile on
Carlini's arrest because I felt it would be easier for the
Colombian government to act in his case.  "I'm very pleased the
Colombian government has done this. It's a very good first step. We
have a list of 20 others they could be giving up too. Of course
they've got to find them first."
   Zelman said Carlini was being held in federal custody in Orlando
and it was unlikely Carlini would get bond. He was uncertain
whether Carlini would be released to be tried by state officials
before facing federal charges.    "None of that's been worked out
yet," Zelman said. 
APn  10/16 2246  Colombian Suspects
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By IKE FLORES
 Associated Press Writer
   ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Two of three Colombians extradited to the
United States on drug charges over the weekend were ordered held
without bond Monday during hearings held under tight security.
   The three were brought to this country together, then
transported separately to Miami, Orlando and Detroit to face
charges in those cities.
   Ana Rodriguez de Tamayo, 50, was dropped off in Miami and
appeared before U.S. Magistrate Peter Palermo on Monday. He ordered
her held without bond and set another hearing for Friday.
   In Orlando, Roberto Carlini-Arrico, 38, an ex-Florida resident
who fled to Colombia after a 1986 indictment on state charges of
drug trafficking, was also ordered held without bond to await a
federal trial with his mother, a brother and a sister. They are
jailed in central Florida.
   The third person taken Saturday from Colombia, Bernardo Pelaez
Roldan, 44, was transported to Detroit, where he was convicted in
absentia in March 1984 of conspiracy to possess with intent to
distribute cocaine.
   The extraditions brought to four the number of people hauled out
of Colombia since President Virgilio Barco imposed emergency
measures against drug traffickers Aug. 18. Eduardo Martinez Romero
was taken to Atlanta on Sept. 6 to face money-laundering charges
brought in March.
   Mrs. Rodriguez is charged in a 1983 indictment with conspiracy
to import cocaine and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to
distribute. If convicted on both counts, she faces up to 30 years
in federal prison and $50,000 in fines.
   Seventeen others were charged in the indictment, including at
least three members of the Bolivian military. Eleven are still
fugitives and six have either been convicted or pleaded guilty,
said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.
   Carlini, according to the 1986 indictment, was a distributor for
thousands of pounds of cocaine that entered south Florida through
a Colombia-Bahamas-Florida supply network during the mid-80s.
   He was extradited after a federal grand jury in Orlando last
month charged him with conspiracy to import and distribute 7,000
pounds of marijuana between November 1988 and August 1989. Carlini
faces up to life in prison and $4 million in fines if convicted.
   "This case shows that our investigation and charging of
Colombian defendants can lead to their extradition to face justice
in the United States," said U.S. Attorney Robert Genzman, who
called Carlini "a significant defendant" in the federal drug
crackdown.
   Another of Roberto Carlini's brothers, Paulo, and a cousin who
identified herself as Susana, attended the magistrate's hearing in
Orlando and told reporters their family was being harassed on
flimsy charges.
   "Don't worry, Roberto, we are with you," Susana told her cousin
before the hearing began. "This is all a show."
   Carlini is to be arraigned Wednesday.
   Mrs. Rodriguez's hearing was moved from a magistrate's hearing
room to a courtroom at U.S. District Court for security reasons.
The courtroom was ringed by U.S. marshals and a metal detector was
temporarily installed outside.
   "In view of the threats made in Colombia by the cartels, we are
taking every precaution," U.S. Marshal Daniel Horgan said.
UPse 01/03 1453  Colombian cocaine trafficker pleads guilty 
   ORLANDO, Fla. (UPI) -- One of the first suspected drug smugglers
extradited from Colombia this fall entered a surprise guilty plea
Wednesday, the second day of his federal drug trial.
   Roberto Carlini, 38, of Colombia, pleaded guilty to one federal
count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 7,000
pounds of marijuana.
   In exchange, the government agreed to drop a conspiracy to
import charge and pending charges against his mother, who was also
on trial.
   U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett set sentencing for March
19. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Moreno said Carlini faced a
minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison.
   Also Wednesday, Carlini agreed to plead guilty to state charges
of racketeering and cocaine trafficking for receiving 2 tons of
cocaine shipped to West Palm Beach in 1982 and 1983, said Andrew
Zelman, an assistant statewide prosecutor in Orlando.
   Carlini faces a mandatory 15-year prison terms on those charges,
Zelman said.
   Carlini, who was extradited in October, was one of the first of
a crop of suspected drug traffickers seized in Colombia and
transported to the United States this fall.
   His federal drug trial began Tuesday with jury selection.
Testimony was to begin Wednesday, but Moreno said Carlini decided
Tuesday to change his plea.
   Carlini's mother, Angela Carlini, 60, a Colombian living in
Cocoa Beach, was convicted Dec. 18 on charges she sold 44 pounds of
cocaine to undercover officers in Brevard County and possessed an
illegal automatic rifle.
   She was a codefendant in her son's trial, facing the same two
marijuana charges, but Moreno said the government agreed to drop
those charges.
   "There was no point in pursuing her. She's about 60 years old,"
he said.
   Both mother and son were in the Seminole County Jail awaiting
sentencing. Angela Carlini is to be sentenced Feb. 26.
   Moreno described Carlini as a major drug trafficker who was
responsible for the distribution of more than 200 pounds of cocaine
annually.
   The 7,000 pounds of marijuana cited in the indictment never
reached the United States, Moreno said. It was shipped from
Colombia to Antigua, where it was stolen, he said.
   No hearing date has been in state court for Carlini to plead
guilty, Zelman said.
   The state agreed to drop eight of 10 counts in a 1986 indictment
that charged Carlini with receiving 2 tons of cocaine in 1982 and
1983, Zelman said.
   "The cocaine would be flown from Colombia to the Bahamas and
later flown to the U.S. then driven to him in West Palm Beach," he
said.
   "He was the distributor in the U.S.," Zelman said. 
CARMICHAEL, Dan.
UPI journalist.
CARVALHO, Ivan Dario.  
Arrested  in  1975 in Bogota while heading a major cocaine
operation.  A  forger  and  cocaine  "cook",  Carvalho  is a native
of Medellin; he had close ties to the "cocaine queen" Veronica
Rivera de VARGAS.
CASTRILLON, Teodoro.
A trusted member of both the OCHOA and Medellin organizations.
Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ used him to investigate the possibility of
expanding into European activities in during his (Ochoa's) visit to
Spain in 1984.
CHALARCA CORTES, Jorge Humberto.
Medellin trafficker and associate of Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha;
based in Mexico.

APn  11/10 1811  Mexico-Cocaine
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By CANDICE HUGHES
 Associated Press Writer
   MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Authorities said Friday they had arrested a
Colombian accused of smuggling 50 tons of cocaine into the United
States and Mexican policemen who protected him.
   Federal judicial police confiscated a half-ton of cocaine,
weapons, vehicles, jet fuel and radio communications gear, Deputy
Attorney General Javier Coello Trejo told a news conference.
   He said Jorge Humberto Chalarca Cortes, known as El Negro, was
the main representative in Mexico of the Medellin cartel, the most
notorious Colombian cocaine gang.
   Coello said Chalarca was a close associate of alleged Medellin
cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. He said the Colombian was
arrested Thursday night at his Mexico City apartment along with his
Venezuelan wife, Cristina Rosas Rodriguez.
   Chalarca's operation moved at least 50 tons of cocaine to the
United States through Mexico the past four years, Coello said, most
of it via California and Florida.
   The other suspects were apprehended in a series of operations by
federal drug agents in Mexico City, Mazatlan and northern
Tamaulipas and Sonora states, he said.
   Among them was the head of the state police in Tamaulipas,
Arturo Cuellar Tijerina, and one of Cuellar's agents, Carlos
Eduardo Perales, the deputy attorney general told reporters. He
said Perales admitted obtaining jet fuel in McAllen, Texas, for the
gang's clandestine landing strips.    McAllen is on the
Texas-Tamaulipas border across from Reynosa.    Among other
suspects is an employee of the Mexican government telephone
company, Yolanda Haxiola Sandoval. Coello said she helped Charlarca
avoid detection by arranging for his calls to Colombia to be
registered as official government calls.
   He said another telephone company employee was being sought.   
Two other suspects, Alejandro Bernal Madrigal and a U.S. citizen
named Julio Chagy de la Rosa, admitted using a Miami business to
launder drug money, he said.
   Coello said U.S. authorities and Interpol, the international
police organization, cooperated in the investigation.
HL           Mexico Cocaine Flow Goes On
     Cartel War, Seizures Have Little Effect
    ---
    BY William Branigin
    Washington Post Foreign Service DD        11/21/89 SO       
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: A SECTION TX           MONTERREY 
Mexico --
    Despite a crackdown on drug cartels in Colombia and huge 
cocaine seizures on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border 
recently, vast quantities of illegal narcotics continue to  flow
from Colombia to the United States through Mexico  virtually
unimpeded, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
    So frustrating has the situation become that authorities  in
both countries are developing countermeasures aimed at  giving
Mexico the capability eventually to shoot down  cocaine-laden
airplanes that now land almost with impunity in  northern Mexico.
The United States would contribute  intelligence on incoming drug
flights and possibly some  material help to the plan,
law-enforcement sources said. But the cooperation would stop well
short of U.S.-Mexican "joint  operations," which Mexico opposes on
grounds of national  sovereignty.
    While the question of whether to shoot down suspected drug 
planes that refuse orders to land has provoked considerable  debate
in the United States, Mexico has no such qualms.
    "Not only are we prepared to shoot down {drug} planes, but  we
have done it already," said Javier Coello Trejo, Mexico's  deputy
attorney general for narcotics matters. He referred to  an incident
earlier this year in which Federal Judicial  Police officers on
patrol in the desert of the northern state  of Coahuila used
small-arms fire to force down a plane that  refused to land. The
officers seized 600 kilograms of cocaine  from the aircraft and
arrested three Colombians and a Mexican  guide.
    In an interview during a conference here last week of 
attorneys general from Mexican and U.S. border states, Coello 
Trejo said Mexican authorities were working on measures to  prevent
drug flights from using this country as a way  station, but he
declined to disclose details.
    "The Mexicans currently don't have the capability for 
in-flight interception" of suspected drug flights, said a  U.S.
official. "It's part of the plan to acquire that."  However,
American authorities indicated that this may not  occur for some
time and that a lack of U.S. funding was a  major obstacle.
    Meanwhile, Colombian cocaine traffickers have been taking 
advantage of the porous 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border and 
desolate areas that stretch up to 300 miles south of it in  which
it is possible to land drug-laden aircraft with little  risk.
    "They're flying in at will," one American antinarcotics 
official said.
    State officials attending the three-day conference that  ended
here Friday concurred in separate interviews that  record cocaine
seizures on both sides of the border seemed to  have had little
effect on U.S. supplies.
    "Nothing we've seen has demonstrated to us that we've had  a
slowdown in the flow," said Nelson Kempsky, chief deputy  attorney
general of California.
    According to George J. Doane, head of the California  attorney
general's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the price  of cocaine
rose slightly after a world record seizure of more  than 20 tons in
Los Angeles Sept. 29, but quickly settled  down again. Ten days
later, undercover agents were able to  buy cocaine in bulk at the
same price as before the seizure,  he said.
    "It was almost like a market scare," Doane said.
    Within a week of the 21.4-ton Los Angeles seizure, U.S. 
authorities had captured nine tons of cocaine crammed into a  house
in Harlingen, Tex., and more than five tons on a ship  intercepted
by the U.S. Coast Guard in international waters  off Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula. The almost 36 tons netted in  the three seizures
nearly equaled the 40 tons of cocaine  captured in Florida in all
of fiscal 1989. The total value of  the three seizures was
estimated at around $11 billion.
    Combined with record seizures in Mexico -- 27 tons of  cocaine
since December 1988, compared to 33 tons during the  previous six
years -- the U.S. busts underscored complaints  by American
law-enforcement officials that a major trend of Colombian smuggling
through Mexico into the American  southwest was being largely
ignored in Washington.
    Whereas the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated  two
years ago that about 30 percent of the cocaine flowing  into the
United States was coming through Mexico, the  estimates now range
from 50 to 70 percent.
    By sending their products across the southwestern U.S.  border
and Gulf of Mexico, U.S. officials said, the Colombian  cocaine
barons not only avoid a vast American antismuggling  force that has
been built up in Florida and the Caribbean in  the last six years,
but they also lower their costs in  supplying lucrative West Coast
markets.
    A growing trend is to fly the cocaine into Mexico in 
twin-engine turboprop planes that carry about half a ton a  load,
turn it over to Mexican partners and store it for  awhile on the
Mexican side of the border, U.S. officials  said. The drugs are
then smuggled across the border in small  lots by traditional
Mexican contraband rings, collected in  safehouses on the U.S. side
and trucked to the West Coast,  where Colombians resume control of
distribution.
    This essentially was the method used to smuggle the 21.4  tons
of cocaine that was discovered by police and drug agents  at a Los
Angeles warehouse Sept. 29, U.S. and Mexican  officials said. In a
cooperative effort in which the U.S.  Drug Enforcement
Administration and Mexican Federal Judicial  Police shared
information about suspects in the case, Mexican  police raided a
motel in the border city of Ciudad Juarez a  month after the
seizure and arrested Rafael Munoz Talavera,  the alleged ringleader
of a 300-member network.
    Munoz, 38, confessed to smuggling the cache found in Los 
Angeles and said his ring had moved more than 33 tons of  Colombian
cocaine across the border in the last three years.  He later
repudiated the confession, however, claiming it was  extracted
under torture.
    Among some 60 properties seized from Munoz after his  arrest
were five vast ranches in Chihuahua state, two  mansions worth more
than $3 million each in Acapulco and a  suburb of El Paso, Tex.,
and various farms, condominiums,  restaurants and other businesses.
    So far this year, Mexican police have arrested scores of
Colombians on drug charges, including two nephews of drug *  lords
Pablo Escobar and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. But  perhaps the
highest ranking Colombian arrested in Mexico is  Jorge Chalarca
Cortes, 30, an alleged member of Rodriguez  Gacha's organization
who was picked up this month with five  other Colombians and a
dozen Mexicans, including a state  police commander, on charges of
belonging to a ring that had  smuggled more than 50 tons of cocaine
into the United States  since 1985.
    As a result of the Los Angeles case, U.S. and Mexican 
authorities are investigating possible official corruption on 
their respective sides of the border in an attempt to explain  how
so much cocaine could have been smuggled into the United  States
undetected. Often, the investigation revealed, the  smugglers
simply drove the drugs across the border in the  trunks of their
cars.
    "Half the time they didn't even bother to conceal it,"  said
one U.S. antinarcotics officer. "What would make them so 
comfortable that they wouldn't even bother to hide the  stuff?"
    On the other hand, U.S. officials at the conference said, 
traffickers know authorities can inspect only a fraction of 
vehicles that cross the border.
    According to U.S. Customs figures, more than 193,000  vehicles
per day crossed from Mexico in fiscal 1989.
    "There's no way in the world we can check every car that's 
coming across," said Kempsky, chief deputy attorney general  of
California. Any attempt to do so would bring trade and  tourism to
a halt, another official said.
    Although U.S. federal authorities hailed the three recent 
multi-ton busts as examples of greater effectiveness, 
antinarcotics officials who deal with the problem daily were  not
so sanguine. The Los Angeles and Harlingen seizures came  as the
result of anonymous tips, the officials pointed out,  and the
seizure at sea followed a chance encounter with a  Coast Guard
vessel.
    "The seizures were not the result of aggressive  interdiction,"
one official said. "It was a fluke. In reality  it had nothing to
do with our pricey buildup along the  border." 
COLE, Richard.
AP journalist.
COLEMAN, Joseph.
UPI journalist.
Facts about Colombia (from Grolier's Encyclopedia, accessed via
Compuserve):
TITLE: Colombia  OFFICIAL NAME. Republic of Colombia  
LAND.  Area:  1,138,914 sq km (439,737 sq mi).  
Capital and largest city: 
Bogota (1985 est.  pop., 3,982,941). 
Elevations.  Highest--Cristobal Colon Peak,
5,775 m (18,947 ft);  lowest--sea level, along the coast.  
PEOPLE.  Population (1988 est.):  30,600,000.  Density (1988 est.): 
27 personsper sq km (70 per sq mi).  Distribution (1988):  65%
urban, 35% rural.  
AnnualGrowth (1987-88):  2.1%. 
Official Language:  Spanish.  
Major Religion:  Roman Catholicism.  
ECONOMY.  GNP (1986):  $35.5 billion;  $1,230 per capita.
Labor distribution (1981):  agriculture--26%;  industry--21%;
services (1980)--53%;  
Major crops,
products, and industries. cassava, rice, potatoes, corn, sugarcane,
bananas, coffee, cabbage, sorghum, cotton, onions, tomatoes,
tobacco, cacao, wheat, barley;  processed food, beverages,
textiles, chemicals, metal products, transportation equipment,
steel, cement, paper, refined petroleum;  mining,
tourism, fishing. 
 Foreign Trade (1986):  imports--$3.9 billion;  exports--$5.1
billion; principal trade partners--United States, West Germany,
Venezuela, Japan. 
Currency.  1 Colombian peso = 100 centavos. Currency Exchange Rate
(Sept.  21, 1988).  1 Colombian peso = $0.0032  
GOVERNMENT.  Type:  republic.  Political Parties:  Liberal party,
Conservative party, Communist party.  
Government Leaders (1988):  Virgilio Barco
Vargas--president.  Legislature: Congress.  Political Subdivisions: 
23 departments, 5 intendancies, 5 commissaries, Bogota special
district.  
EDUCATION AND HEALTH.  Literacy (1986).  80% of adult population. 
Universities and other institutions of higher learning (1986): 
231.  
Hospital Beds (1983). 
28,880. Physicians (1983).  21,778.  
Life Expectancy (1985): women--66.0;  men--61.4.  
Infant Mortality (1987-88):  48 per 1,000 live births.  
COMMUNICATIONS.  Railroads (1987):  3,563 km (2,214 mi) total.
Roads (1987):  9,350 km (5,810 mi) paved;  66,100 km (41,073 mi)
unpaved.  
Major Ports:  6. 
Major Airfields:  11. 


CORREA  ARROYAVE,  Pablo,  Carlos,  Arturo  and  Rigoberto.   
Carlos was reported to have been killed prior to  1988, although a
Carlos Dario, called a "mid-level Medellin narcotics trafficker"
was  picked up by police in February 1988.  At the time, Pablo was
reported to be doing time in the USA for cocaine smuggling and
money laundering.  The  Carlos  picked up in 1988 was wanted for
murder.  Rigoberto and Arturo were arrested in Pennsylvania in
1986; they were indicted and convicted of moving 7.5 tons  of HCL
into USA and laundering $25 million.  Pablo,  member  of  the  Los 
Pablos  gang who created Tanquilandia, (Pablo ESCOBAR, Pablo CORREA
RAMOS--since  slain,  and himself) was present at the January 1981
capo meeting held  at  the OCHOA ranch at Repelon, Atlantico, where
decision was made to ship  HCL  via  Acandi, Gulf of Uruba, and
where it was  decided  to  create  the  cocaine  center  that 
later  became  known  as Tranquilandia.
The Los Pablos founded both Tranquilandia--which was discovered
because a shipment of 76 drums of  ether  was  traced  from Chicago
to the site--and the Colombian Villa coca operations discovered  in 
Yari.   Pablo Correa Ramos (?) was apparently murdered by order of 
Pablo  ESCOBAR some time later, see FBIS,
22 Jun 88.  It is  possible  that  a  relative (?), Jairo, helped
initiate the apparent gang was that broke out in  late 1987
involving the Cali and Medellin cartels.
CORREA  GOMEZ,  Fernando.
Boyfriend  of  major trafficker Martha Maria Upegui de URIBE.
CORREA MAYA, Felix.  
Medellin banker and money manager.
CORREA, Jairo.
Brother  (?)  of  Pablo,  who along with Francisco BARBOSA
ESTUPINAN ran a major operations in the Magdalena Medio region
until the major bust of May 88.  Founder of  the  "La Dorada"
cartel in Caldas near Magdalena River.  Really considered a part of
the Medellin cartel.  The question exists whether Correa and
Barbosa have switched from the Cali to the Medellin group.
CUEVAS RAMIREZ, Nelson.
Trafficker extradited to the United States in December, 1989.
UPne 12/15 1138  U.S. brings Colombian to New York on drug charges 
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- U.S. authorities spirited a suspected drug
trafficker from Bogota To New York Friday, where he was to be
indicted on narcotics charges, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
   Nelson Cuevas Ramirez, the 10th Colombian to be extradited to
the United States since August when Colombian President Virgilio
Barco began his campaign against drug trafficking, was to be
arraigned before a U.S. magistrate at 2 p.m. in Manhattan.
   Ramirez is the first extradited since a bombing killed dozens of
people in front of the Colombian national police headquarters last
week.
   The bombing was one of scores in recent months attributed to
drug cartels, which are waging a violent campaign of intimidation
against the extraditions.
   Also, 42 members of Colombia's judiciary have been killed since
drug lords declared "total war" on the extradition policy.
   Cuevas Ramirez, 55, indicted on drug charges in Manhattan in
October, was turned over by Colombian authorities to a team of the
Marshals Service Special Operations Group Thursday night in Bogota,
Marshals Service Director K. Michael Moore announced in a statement
released in Washington.
   The special operations team placed Cuevas Ramirez aboard a
Marshals Service jet and he was flown to New York City, arriving at
4:15 a.m. Friday, Moore's statement said.
   Cuevas Ramirez was in custody pending arraignment in U.S.
District Court, the statement added.
   "President Virgilio Barco and the government of Colombia are
again to be applauded for the continued ... resolve in standing up
to the narco-terrorists through these continued extraditions,"
Moore said.
   Last week, the House of Representatives defied the Barco
administration and added a question on extradition to a referendum
on constitutional reform.
   The Senate now must decide the issue, pinned between the
pro-extradition Barco administration and drug lords who threaten to
escalate their bombing campaign unless the extradition issue is put
on the ballot.
   The federal indictment returned against Cuevas Ramirez accuses
him of consipracy to import and distribute approximately 330 pounds
of cocaine, and the imporation and possession with the intent to
distribute 245 pounds of cocaine.
   The 245 pounds of cocaine were seized at the Westchester County
airport in New York in April 1987.
APn  12/16 0705  Cocaine Extradition 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   NEW YORK (AP) -- A Colombian who was extradited to face
drug-importation charges was ordered held without bail after a
prosecutor argued he was likely to flee the country if freed.
   Nelson Cuevas Ramirez, 55, pleaded innocent Friday in U.S.
District Court to two counts of conspiracy and an importation
charge connected with the shipment of 240 pounds of cocaine to this
country.
   He is the 10th person to be extradited from Colombia since
August, when that country began a new drive against drug
trafficking,
   Ramirez, who arrived in New York early Friday from Bogota,
entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Naomi Buchwald.
   Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Glazer argued that Ramirez was
likely to leave the jurisdiction if freed on bail. His
court-appointed lawyer, Ruth Chamberlin, didn't contest the
government's position.
   Negotiations for the cocaine allegedly occurred in Panama, and
the 111 kilograms were seized in April 1987 at the Westchester
County Airport in New York, the indictment said.
   According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, as many as 300
Colombians have been charged in various U.S. cities on drug-related
charges, although many of the indictments are sealed. 
UPn  12/16 0353  Colombian extradicted to New York; arraigned on
dru... 
Colombian extradicted to New York; arraigned on drug charges
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- A suspected Colombian drug trafficker
extradicted to New York from Bogota pleaded innocent Friday to
conspiracy and other charges for allegedly importing hundreds of
pounds of cocaine into the United States.
   Nelson Cuevas Ramirez is the 10th Colombian to be extradited to
the United States since last August when Colombian President
Virgilio Barco began his campaign against drug trafficking.
   Forty-two members of Colombia's judiciary have been killed since
drug lords declared "total war" on the extradition policy. Last
week, a bombing attributed to drug cartels killed dozens of people
and heavily damaged the Colombian national police headquarters.
   Ramirez, 55, indicted in New York with three other suspected
drug traffickers, was turned over by Colombian authorities to a
team of the federal Marshals Thursday night in Bogota, officials
said.
   Speaking through a translator, Ramirez was arraigned in
Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Naomi Buchwald.
   Also indicted was Mauricio Londono-Villa, who is in custody
following his arrest in October, said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Elizabeth Glazer.
   The two others indicted, Luis Hernando Garces-Restrepo, also
known as "Don Chepe," and Jose Jesus Blandon, remain at large and
are believed to be hiding in Colombia, Glazer said.
   Ramirez and his three cohorts are accused of conspiring to
import and distribute approximately 330 pounds of cocaine, and the
importation and possession with the intent to distribute 245 pounds
of cocaine.
   The 245 pounds of cocaine were seized at the Westchester County
airport in New York in April 1987.
   Glazer refused to discuss what ties Ramirez or the other three
suspected drug traffickers may have to Colombia's drug cartels.
   In the statement about Ramirez's arrest, Moore commended
Colombian authorities for the extradition of the suspected drug
trafficker.
   "President Virgilio Barco and the government of Colombia are
again to be applauded for the continued ... resolve in standing up
to the narco-terrorists through these continued extraditions," the
statement read.
   Last week, the Colombian House of Representatives defied the
Barco administration and added a question on extradition to a
referendum on constitutional reform.
   The Senate now must decide the issue, pinned between the
pro-extradition Barco administration and drug lords who threaten to
escalate their bombing campaign unless the extradition issue is put
on the ballot. 
CUEVAS, Oscar.    
Cali  cartel  money  launderer.    Convicted in 1986 of
laundering $25 million, perhaps related to Bogota trafficker Carlos
CUEVAS.
CURA DE MOYA,  Cesar. 
Pilot who reportedly moves HCL for the Medellin cartel.  Called one
of the chief capos of Cordoba and may be tied to the NADER
trafficking family of the same region.
DANGONG NOGUERA,  Julio  and  Victor.    
Julio is a Northcoast trafficker wanted in the USA.    He  was 
captured  in  Baranquilla  in January 1987, and released (?). 
Victor is a congressman.   They, along with cousins Orlando and
Rafael NOGUERA operate out  of  Cienaga,  Magdalena  and  are said
to have the largest drug fortune on the Atlantic  Coast.   They
operate out of their strip at La Ye where the Dangong Noguera
family (which is considerable) congregates.
They are responsible for shipping the OCHOA clans HCL to the USA. 
It was said that M-19 guerrilla leader Jaime  BATEMAN and the
Conservative Congressman and drug trafficker Antonio ESCOBAR BRAVO
took  off  from  La Ye on the day of theaccident when they died in
a plane crash.
DANIES, Enrique.
Colombian Minister of Communication. Assumed position after Carlos
Lemos Simmonds became Minister of the Interior; former governor of
Guajira province.DAVILA JIMENO, Raul Alberto.   
In  the late 1970s the Davila family moved from trafficking
marijuana to cocaine.    A  Florida warrant for Raul's arrest was
issued in  Florida  in  April  1979.    The  Davila organization
was still operational along the north  coast  in  1987  and  was
moving both cocaine and marijuana.

DE GREIFF, Monica.



Former Colombian Minister of Justice (assumed office July 16,
1989); under death sentence by cartel leaders during President
Barco Vargas' 1989 crackdown for signing the extradition order for
Eduardo Martinez Romero, an accused money launderer; despite her
initial resistance to the traffickers' terrorism during the 1989
drug war, she resigned as Minister of Justice on September 21,
1989, fearing for the life of her husband and three year old son.
She declined the position of ambassador to Portugal, preferring to
enter private life, probably in the United States.
The Torrance Daily Breeze, Wednesday, August 30, 1989; Colombia
official won't quit by James Rowley, The Associated Press:
WASHINGTON-Colombian Justice Minister Monica de Greiff vowed
Tuesday to stay on the job to fight her country's drug lords and
appealed for $19 million in new U.S. aid to protect judges from the
Medellin cartel.
The law is under siege in Colombia and we must protect it in every
way we can, de Greiff told a news conference at the official
residence of the Colombian ambassador.
I never considered resigning, she said in response to a question
about such reports. The threats are out there, but I am satisfied
with my protection right now.
The 32-year old lawyer said she would go back to Colombia next week
after concluding discussions with the Bush administration about her
request for additional aid.
I am determined that the integrity of out justice system survives
this crisis and I hope to play my full part in assuring this, de
Greiff said.
Meanwhile, in Bogota, the father of three purported drug barons
begged the government on Tuesday to end its fierce anti-narcotics
drive and negotiate peace.
Fabio Ochoa Restrepo, the father three reputed coe kingpins,
appealed in an open letter to President Virgilio Barco to bury the
hatchet and agree to talk to the drug barons.
Let there be dialogue, let there be peace, let's have forgiveness,
let's carry out a kind of erasing and clean slate, Ochoa Restrepo
wrote.
The letter was published Tuesday in a Bogota newspaper.
Bombs exploded at six state liquor stores Tuesday in Medellin. The
shops are a source of patronage for local political leaders.
A seventh bomb went off outside a tourist agency office in Bogota.
No one was hurt, police said. They estimated damage at $100,000.
The justice minister, who met Monday in Washington, D.C. with
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and other top Justice Department
aides, continued talks Tuesday with the Bush administration about
her request for $19 million to protect Colombia's judges from
assassination.
The administration only last week approved a $65 million military
aid program, and the Pentagon said Tuesday that disbursement of
funds under that program is awaiting Colombia's list of needs.
At the news conference, de Greiff told reporters, We must uphold
the rule of law, and regrettably at this moment that requires
intensive physical protection of our judges.
The Bush administration already has promised $5 million over two
years for training programs to bolster judicial security.
We have asked the United States for more support not only in words
but in resources, she told reporters. I am very pleased with what
we have done; I think we can do more, but I think we can work out
things.
De Greiff, her country's eighth justice minister in three years,
said she told Thornburgh that Colombia needed the additional aid to
buy armored cars, metal detectors and other security devices to
protect judges from the wave of assassinations mounted by the drug
cartel.
Both our countries are countries of laws even at a time when our
enemies are operating against us with no respect for law of even
the minimal standards of decency, she said.
The State Department, meanwhile, updated its warning against non-
essential travel for U.S. citizens in Colombia and suggested, for
the first time, that American citizens there consider leaving.
Although Americans have not yet been the target of any violence,
visitors and American resident in Colombia should carefully re-
evaluate whether it is essential that they travel to or remain in
Colombia at this time, said the new statement.
The last travel advisory, issued last weekend, was limited to
recommending that travel to Colombia be postponed for several
weeks. In addition to raising the possibility of resident U.S.
citizens leaving the country, the update also recommended that new
travel to Colombia be postponed indefinitely.
President Bush, who discussed this anti-drug strategy with top
Cabinet officials at his Maine seaside retreat, said the
administration will cooperate with Colombia to the best of our
ability.
The president declined to comment specifically on de Greiff's
request for more money but added that it's being worked out now,
the details.
The Pentagon said it will begin delivering military equipment under
the $65 million aid package as soon as it receives a list of
material  sought by the Colombian government.
When the list is returned to the United States delivery will begin,
Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams told reporters.
Williams declined to say what type of equipment would be provided.


Colombian Minister Resigns After Threats.
The Washington Post, September 23, 1989, FINAL Edition By: Douglas
Farah, Special to The Washington Post
Section: A SECTION, p. a17
Story Type: News National; News Foreign
Line Count: 49    Word Count: 544
BOGOTA,  Colombia,  Sept.  22  -   In a move widely viewed as a
blow to the government's  five-week-old  war  on  cocaine, Justice
Minister Monica de Greiff  announced  her resignation today
following weeks of death threats from drug traffickers.
   De Greiff, 32, looking composed at a hastily arranged press
conference, said  that  her  personal  security  had  become  a
serious concern for the government  of President Virgilio Barco,
and that she had resigned Thursday night after turning down an
offer of the ambassadorship to Portugal.
   In  a  brief  statment,  de Greiff said Barco had decided "he
needed another  type  of  person in the ministry and has every
right to ask for my resignation"  as  justice  minister--one  of
the toughest jobs in a country wracked by an ongoing terrorist
campaign against judges and law enforcement officials who dare to
take on the cocaine cartels.
   Barco  asked  Communications Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds to
take over de  Greiff 's  duties.  Lemos Simmonds is a former
foreign minister and ambassador to the Organization of American
States.
   De  Greiff said she would travel to the United States Saturday
to be with  her  husband and 3-year-old son, who are living there
following death threats  by the drug barons. But she said she
planned to return to Colombia in  two  weeks and perhaps enter
politics. "I love Colombia, and I think we all have to be united
during these difficult times," she said.
   De  Greiff  was  a  key  figure  in  the  decision  to renew
summary extraditions  of  suspected  drug  traffickers who are
wanted in the United States, making her a most-wanted target by
drug traffickers.
   While  only  one  person has been extradited since the current
crackdown began  Aug.  18  following  the  assassination  of  a 
leading presidential candidate,  Luis  Carlos Galan, the drug
cartel, in communiques signed "the Extraditables," vowed to wage a
"total war" against the government and kill 10 judges for every
person sent to the United States to stand trial. 
   The  resignation  comes  as  Barco faces harsh criticism over
the battle against cocaine traffickers and growing tension with the
United States over the  denial  or cancellation of U.S. visas to
more than two dozen prominent politicians because of alleged ties
to drug traffickers.
   At the same time, terrorist bombings have increased in the
capital, with 12 bombs going off Thursday, badly damaging offices
of political parties.
   De  Greiff, who took the job July 16 after serving as
undersecretary of justice, was the eighth justice minister in the
past three years. One of her  predecessors,  Rodrigo  Lara Bonilla,
was murdered in 1984. There have been reports for weeks that she
would resign, which she denied. Immediately after the crackdown
began, de Greiff went to the United States to plead for U.S. aid.
   The  country  was  in  an  uproar  today over a list of 25
lawmakers and politicians  who  have  reportedly  been  denied 
U.S.  visas  or had their existing  ones  revoked  because of their
alleged ties to drug trafficking. Foreign  Minister  Julio  Londono 
today  made  public a letter to the U.S. Embassy  in  which  he 
said: "My government considers that (steps) of this kind,  without 
an  adequate  clarification  and precise explanation, could
generate a climate of undesirable relations between the two
countries." 
   U.S.  Embassy  Deputy  Chief  of  Mission  Phillip  McLain
denied such a "blacklist"  existed  and  said  the  U.S.  Embassy 
would  not  comment on individual cases of visa denials.
CAPTIONS: MONICA de GREIFF.
NAMED PERSONS: DE GREIFF, MONICA; SIMMONDS, CARLOS LEMOS
DESCRIPTORS:  Colombia;  Freelancing;  Resignations;  Threats;
Narcotic and
    drug violations; United States 
 THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
                       Copyright Times Mirror Company 1989
 DATE: SATURDAY  September 23, 1989
 EDITION: Home Edition                        LENGTH: MEDIUM 
PART-NAME: ONE                               PAGE: 5  PART-NUMBER:
1                               COLUMN: 3  TYPE-OF-MATERIAL: Wire
 DATELINE: BOGOTA, Colombia
 DESK: Foreign
 SOURCE: From Reuters
                  COLOMBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER CONFIRMS SHE QUIT
     Justice Minister Monica de Greiff, who became a symbol of
courageous  defiance in Colombia's drug war, confirmed Friday that
she has resigned,  saying she did so after President Virgilio Barco
Vargas asked her to take a  new post.
    Barco named Communications Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds to
succeed her,  and De Greiff said the change should not alter
Colombia's crackdown on its  cocaine cartels. 
    The 32-year-old De Greiff, who during her 10 weeks in office
had been the subject of repeated death threats, told reporters that
she decided to submit  her resignation Thursday, two days after
Barco offered her the post of  ambassador to Portugal. She declined
that post.
    ''The president removes and installs ministers as he wants. The
president  wanted a change now and I am not going to start a
scandal over this,'' she  said.
    Asked if Colombia's image in its drug war would change with her
departure,  De Greiff said: ''I think it should be exactly the
same. I am not the only one  doing this job and many people are
fighting.''
    She denied there was any political infighting between her and
other Cabinet  ministers.
    Leading newspapers had speculated there would be a Cabinet
reshuffle in the  wake of De Greiff's resignation.
    In Washington, a State Department official said the Bush
Administration  remains confident about Barco's commitment to fight
drug cartels despite De   Greiff's resignation.
    De Greiff was the sixth justice minister in Barco's three-year
presidency.  Each time one has stepped down, there has been
speculation that it was an act  of capitulation to death threats.
    Most of De Greiff's predecessors in this decade were threatened
with death.  One was assassinated in 1984 and another, who resigned
to become ambassador to Hungary in 1987, was shot and seriously
wounded while walking on a Budapest  street.
    Observers said that De Greiff's resignation is certain to be
interpreted as  a setback for the anti-drugs offensive proclaimed
by Barco on Aug. 18, after  the assassination of a leading
presidential candidate who campaigned against  drug traffickers.
    De Greiff did not disclose her plans for the future beyond
saying that  would make a brief private visit to the United States,
where her husband and  son are, before returning to Colombia.
 PHOTOGRAPH:   Justice Minister Monica de Greiff discussing
resignation.  PHOTOGRAPHER: Associated Press
 KEYWORDS: DE GREIFF, MONICA
           RESIGNATIONS
           COLOMBIA -- GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
           DRUG TRAFFICKING -- COLOMBIA
           THREATS
Coke is still it in The Economist, 30 September - 6 October 1989:
The murder by a drugs gang of a Colombian presidential candidate,
Luis Carlos Galan, on August 18th, unleashed a small war. It is
still in its phoney stage, and could yet peter out in Confusion.
President Virgilio Barco promised revenge. President George Bush
swore to back him. Britain is belatedly sending a gunboat, probably
the Alacrity. More than 10,000 Colombians, most of them
insignificant vagrants, were arrested under the emergency powers,
then released. Weapons (not all of hem suitable) and dollars ( too
few to make much difference) began to flow south from the United
States. The gangsters hit back, with bombs in banks and public
buildings, and the usual threats of more murder.
The minister of justice, Mrs Monica de Greiff, was the eighth
holder of that terrifying job since Mr Barco became president three
years ago. She is 32 and has a son of three; having taken office in
July, she understandably began trying to resign in August. On
September 21st President Barco eventually let her go, unable to
find a successor, asked the minister of communications to handler
her work. Her departure was taken as a symbolic victory for the bad
guys.
The government's symbolic victory was less significant: the swift
extradition to face trial in the United States of one alleged
bookkeeper for the Medellin drugs cartel. A few other extradition
orders, none for big fish, trundle slowly through the courts.
American spokesmen say the gangsters are running scared. The big
traders, they claim, have been flushed out of their ranches, discos
and football clubs, into hiding in the mountains and forests. Fewer
clandestine flights deliver raw materials to the Colombian
processors from growers in Peru and Bolivia, where the price of
coca paste has dropped. American agents in main coca-growing area
of Peru think they have spotted Colombian merchants there. From the
trackless borders of Brazil come rumours of relocated cocaine
laboratories.
Even if true, this is no victory. Colombia's judges, prosecutors
and policemen (and their families) remain without adequate
protection, operating a constitution with strong safeguards for
suspects and an infinite capacity for delay. There are also good
financial reasons why Colombia's anti-cocaine struggle looks less
fervent than the Americans had hoped.
The best strike against the big dealers would be interception of
their profits. Yet most middle-class Colombians hold money in
illegal dollar accounts, not because they are drug dealers but
because they lack confidence in their home currency. They favour
banking secrecy; none more so than the many decent folk (and some
crooks) now seeking refuge in the United States.
By good management as well as drug revenues, Colombia has prospered
in recent years. In July the international coffee agreement
collapsed. The price of a third of Colombia's exports is now
roughly half of what is was last January. The coffee-producing
countries have been denouncing he United States (which drinks more
of the stuff than anyone else) for dismantling the agreement, and
want it rebuilt. That is hardly possible: high prices and new
instant¼-coffee-making techniques mean that the world now grows
more coffee than it can possibly drink, so the price must
inevitably fall. 
Yet cheaper coffee does more than cut $400m off Colombia's export
earnings. The government has guaranteed growers a fixed price for
all this season's coffee. That will now cost it much more than the
shrunken value of the crop; the public-sector deficit will soar,
and so will inflation. Lowering the price paid to 500,000
shareholders will encourage to look for a more profitable crop.
Guess what.
APn  10/28 0547  Colombia-de Greiff
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By RICHARD COLE
 Associated Press Writer
   MIAMI (AP) -- Colombia's former justice minister said the entire
international community must help her nation battle its drug
barons, and could start by helping to pay for reforms of the
Colombian justice system.    Monica de Greiff, 32, served only 70
days as her nation's top law enforcement official before resigning
last month amid threats from traffickers and fleeing with her
family to the United States.
   Dozens of plainclothes U.S. marshals and Miami police officers
stood guard Friday as she addressed the Colombian American Chamber
of Commerce of Greater Miami, her first public speech since leaving
office.    "I am not in favor of a dialogue (with drug
traffickers), and I upheld that policy in the time I served as a
minister," Ms. de Greiff said. "And I believe that continues to be
the policy."
   Instead, she said the international community must cease feuding
over whether the drug problem is one of producing or consuming
nations and form a united front against drugs.
   "Our societies have been challenged by this invisible enemy, a
common enemy," said Ms. de Geiff. "There is no historical precedent
for this kind of war."    Neither the Opium Wars in China during
the last century nor the U.S. experiment with Prohibition in the
1920s created problems of the current magnitude, she said.
   "Colombia cannot continue to fight alone with the United States
as its only partner," said Ms. de Greiff.
   She said one concrete step would be for the international
financial community to smooth the way for a $40 million loan to
modernize and protect Colombia's beleaguered judicial branch.
   Ms. de Greiff resigned at the height of drug-related violence
sparked by the Aug. 18 assassination of leading presidential
candidate Sen. Luis Carlos Galan.    Her resignation was widely
attributed to repeated death threats, but she has said she quit
because President Virgilio Barco wanted to replace her.    Since
leaving office, Ms. de Greiff has been living in the U.S. with her
husband, Argentine public relations consultant Miguel Paley, and
their 3-year-old son. She said she has not been threatened in the
U.S. and plans to stay in this country for the present.
DE LA CUESTA MARQUEZ, Jorge.
Pilot of Pablo ESCOBAR.
APn  10/19 2025  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police said they arrested the personal
pilot of Colombia's alleged cocaine godfather Thursday and will
hold him for extradition to the United States.
   The pilot, Jorge de la Cuesta Marquez, is wanted in Florida on
charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, national police Col.
Oscar Pelaez Carmona said in a news release. He identified De la
Cuesta as the pilot of Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellin
cocaine cartel.
   Pelaez would not give details of the arrest except to say De la
Cuesta was arrested in an apartment in northern Bogota.
   With De la Cuesta's arrest, five Colombians are waiting to be
extradited to the United States. The Colombian government has
extradited four others already.
   None of those extradited or awaiting extradition is on the U.S.
Justice Department's list of the 12 most wanted drug suspects in
Colombia.
   President Virgilio Barco resumed extraditions Aug. 18 following
the slayings of a leading presidential candidate, a federal judge,
and a police colonel by drug barons.
   Another federal judge was killed by a gunman in Medellin on
Tuesday, three days after three Colombians were extradited.
   A group calling itself the Extraditables said in a telephone
call to a Medellin radio station the murder was in revenge for the
extraditions carried out so far.
   Barco has said he will not back down in his war on drug
traffickers, and the traffickers have responded with communiques
that they prefer a grave in Colombia to a jail cell in the United
States.
   In an effort to force the government to call off extraditions,
the traffickers have killed a governor, bombed two newspapers,
killed eight news media employees and set off 164 explosions.
   The explosions at banks, shopping areas, hotels, schools and
government offices have killed 16 people.
   The latest occurred Wednesday in Bogota's main plaza when a hand
grenade exploded, apparently accidentally, and killed the man
carrying it.
   The man was only steps from the building of the national
congress.
UPn  11/30 1803  Cocaine `kingpin' extradited from Colombia By DAN
CARMICHAEL
   WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Colombia turned over a "kingpin" in the
Medellin cocaine cartel and he was quickly extradited to the United
States to stand trial on drug charges, the Justice Department said
Thursday.
   Jorge Mario de la Cuesta was indicted in February in a massive
cocaine importation case, along with four other accused leaders of
the Medellin cartel, the Justice Department said.
   Cuesta is accused in a federal drug indictment of participating
in a conspiracy that resulted in the smuggling of more than 16 tons
of cocaine into the United States.
   Colombian authorities turned him over to a special team of
United States marshals at 7 a.m. EST in Bogota. The Justice
Department said de la Cuesta was placed aboard a jet and flown to
Jacksonville, Fla.
   De la Cuesta arrived in Florida at 12:10 p.m. EST and appeared
later before U.S. Magistrate Harvey Schlesinger, who ordered a bond
hearing Friday afternoon.
   Prosecutors want de la Cuesta held pending trial. The hearing
was continued to allow the Colombian suspect to confer with his
lawyer, Neal Betancourt of Jacksonville. De la Cuesta's trial was
scheduled for Feb. 5, 1990. 
   The Justice Department said de la Cuesta is the ninth person
extradited from Colombia to the United States since the president
of Colombia, Virgilio Barco, began a major anti-drug offensive in
August after the assassination of a leading presidential candidate.
   According to the indictment, returned in Jacksonville on Feb.
24, de la Cuesta piloted or was aboard aircraft that flew more than
9,500 pounds of cocaine from Colombia to the Bahamas.
   From the Bahamas, the indictment charged, the cocaine was
shipped to the United States aboard planes and boats.
   According to the de la Cuesta indictment, the conspiracy
involves five people alleged to be leaders of the often-violent
Medellin cocaine cartel: Carlos Lehder, serving a life prison
sentence after being convicted in Jacksonville, Pablo
Escobar-Gaviria, Jose Rodriguez-Gacha, Jorge Ochoa-Vasquez, and
Fabio Ochoa-Vasquez.
   All these people, except Lehder, are defendants in the case. The
others are accused of being major leaders in the cocaine cartel,
but have eluded capture by Colombian authorities.
   Although the Justice Department identified de la Cuesta as a
"kingpin" in the Medellin cartel, he is not one of the 12 "most
wanted" Colombians on a list made public by Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh this summer. None of the 12 has been caught.
   Lehder currently is serving a life-without-parole sentence in
federal prison, plus 135 years.
   According to the indictment, Escobar-Gaviria organized an
assassination squad that killed Lara Bonilla, the Colombian justice
minister, in 1984.
   Lehder flew from Colombia in an airplane flown by de la Cuesta
-- going first to Cayo Largo, Cuba, and then to a Nicaraguan air
base at Los Brasiles, Nicaragua, the indictment said.
   The indictment also said the other four leaders of the Medellin
cartel flew from Colombia to Panama and then -- with the
assassination squad -- joined Lehder in Nicaragua.
   The charges state that de la Cuesta later gave one of Lehder's
airplanes to the Nicaraguan government as a gift.
   The five Medellin cartel leaders "made arrangements to pay
Nicaraguan officials large sums of money to allow them to remain in
Nicaragua and to allow them to utilize Nicaragua as a base for
smuggling cocaine to the United States," the indictment said.  
DE LA GUARDIA, Antonio.
Colonel in Cuban military; involved with Pablo Escobar in
transshipment of cocaine through Cuba; sentenced to death.
DEL CID, LUIS.
Panamanian army colonel and associate of Manuel NORIEGA.
APn  12/26 1337  Panama-del Cid 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By MICHAEL WARREN Associated Press Writer
   MIAMI (AP) -- A Panamanian officer accused of helping deposed
dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega smuggle cocaine for the Medellin
cartel was jailed in Florida today after surrendering in Panama,
the Justice Department said.
   Lt. Col. Luis del Cid, who commanded a Panama Defense Forces
unit in the province of Chiriqui, was placed in the custody of U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents after he surrendered
Saturday, said Deborah Burstion-Wade, an agency spokeswoman in
Washington.
   He was flown to the United States under tight security Monday
and held at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center south of
Miami, Ms. Burstion-Wade said.
   Del Cid pleaded innocent to drug-related charges today before
U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler and was ordered held without
bond pending a Jan. 2 hearing.
   Del Cid, 46, repeated his claim that he turned himself in to
fight the charges. "I surrender myself. I wanted to be brought
here," he told the judge through a translator.
   Frank Rubino, one of Noriega's attorneys, said he came to the
court session today to monitor the situation and arrange to speak
with del Cid, who is now represented by a public defender. Rubino
said he does not think he will defend del Cid.
   "We are confident that we have the evidence to convict him,"
U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtenin said at a news conference this
morning before heading to del Cid's first court appearance.
   Lehtenin described del Cid as one of Noriega's "righthand men"
and said he was the ousted Panamanian leader's liaison, courier and
emissary in drug trafficking deals with Colombian drug lords.
   Del Cid was one of 15 Noriega associates named in an indictment
unsealed Feb. 5, 1988, by a federal grand jury in Miami. He was
wanted on four counts related to cocaine possession and laundering
drug profits, the spokeswoman said.
   According to the indictment, del Cid acted as a liaison and
money courier between Colombia's Medellin cartel and Noriega. The
indictment accused Noriega of accepting a $4.6 million bribe from
the organization to protect shipments of cocaine, launder money,
supply drug laboratories and shield drug traffickers from the law.
   A federal grand jury in Tampa indicted Noriega on charges of
taking a separate $5.4 million bribe from the Colombia drug cartel.
   If convicted on all counts, del Cid could be sentenced to 70
years in prison and fined $550,000, according to Lehtinen's office.
   After del Cid's surrender, he declared loyalty to the government
of Guillermo Endara, installed as president last week after U.S.
troops invaded Panama to remove Noriega from power.
   He remained in custody in the Central American country until DEA
agents escorted him to Miami.
   "Normally he would have been flown in by U.S. marshals, but this
was not an ordinary case," Ms. Burstion-Wade said.
   The Justice Department has said that if Noriega is brought to
the United States, he would be tried first in Miami because the
prosecutors' case there was stronger than in Tampa. 
 
APn  12/27 0025  Panama-del Cid 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By RICHARD COLE Associated Press Writer
   MIAMI (AP) -- A Panamanian officer considered one of Manuel
Noriega's "right-hand men" and accused of helping the deposed
dictator smuggle cocaine for the Medellin cartel pleaded innocent
before a federal judge Tuesday.
   "I surrendered myself -- I wanted to be brought here," Lt. Col.
Luis del Cid told U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler.
   Del Cid, 46, faces racketeering, drug-smuggling and
money-laundering charges in the same February 1988 indictment that
accused Noriega and Medellin cartel figures of importing cocaine
into the United States.
   The commander of a Panama Defense Forces unit in the northern
Panama province of Chiriqui, del Cid surrendered to U.S. forces
Saturday after last week's invasion and was brought to Miami on
Monday. He is the first key Noriega aide named in the case to be
brought into court.
   Del Cid was "a liason, courier and emissary for Manuel Noriega,
dealing with drug trafficking," U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen said.
"We allege he personally imported shipments of cocaine, and he
personally transmitted large amounts of cash."
   Lehtinen called del Cid "one of the right-hand men of Gen.
Noriega."
   Wearing faded jeans and a blue polo shirt, del Cid strongly
denied the four counts in court and demanded a jury trial.
   Hoeveler appointed a public defender as del Cid's temporary
counsel after the Panamanian testified he carried only $7,000 in
cash with him and had no access to a frozen savings account in
Panama.
   "His ability to get money out of Panama would be very hard at
this time," the public defender, Ken Swartz, told the judge. "He is
unemployed. His former employer is out of business."
   The judge turned back efforts by the U.S. attorney's office to
ask detailed questions of del Cid in an effort to uncover any
additional assets, saying such testimony could affect the
racketeering counts against him.
   Outside the courtroom, Lehtinen said federal investigators are
convinced the conspirators are sitting on large amounts of cash.
   "They were dealing with large amounts of drugs -- that makes a
potential for a lot of profit," Lehtinen said. "We've always
believed they made a lot of money."
   One of Noriega's criminal attorneys, Frank Rubino, appeared at
the hearing. He said he did not expect to represent del Cid but
wanted to monitor the case.
   Lehtinen asked the judge to bar any consultations between del
Cid and Noriega's attorney, saying the defendant might not
understand that Rubino might not have del Cid's best interests in
mind, but Hoeveler refused.
   Asked if his real concern was that Noriega might try to pressure
his former aide, Lehtinen said only, "I'd rather go with my
explanation."
   The U.S. attorney referred any questions about Noriega to
officials in Washington. Lehtinen refused to say what contacts his
office had made with del Cid, or if he had indicated a willingness
to testify against Noriega.
   Del Cid faces a maximum of 70 years in prison and fines of
$550,000. He was ordered held without bond at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center outside Miami until a full hearing Jan. 2.
   The Miami indictment accuses Noriega, del Cid, cartel leader
Pablo Escobar Gaviria and 12 others of running drugs and using
Panama as a safe haven. Noriega, using del Cid as an emissary,
allegedly allowed the cartel to process drugs, launder money and
ship cocaine through Panama, accepting a $4.6 million bribe from
the Colombians.
   Del Cid is accused of having a personal role in a 400-kilogram
cocaine shipment to Florida in December 1982.
   He also allegedly picked up $100,000 from Noriega's personal
pilot, Floyd Carlton Cacerez, in November 1982, and delivered
$200,000 to Carlton at the military headquarters in Panama City a
month later. Carlton is one of the principal witnesses in the case.
   Two minor defendants, Brian Alden Davidow and William
Saldarriaga, were to go on trial here Jan. 8, but Lehtinen
indicated Tuesday he expects to ask for a delay in that case.
   It will not take long to begin any prosecution of del Cid,
however, the U.S. attorney said.
   "We are confident that we have the evidence to convict him,"
Lehtinen said. "We're ready to try him."
   A separate federal grand jury in Tampa indicted Noriega and
others on charges of taking a $5.4 million bribe from the Medellin
cartel. But the Justice Department has said if Noriega is brought
to the United States, he would be tried first in Miami because the
prosecution case there is stronger.
   Del Cid was not named in the Tampa indictment. 
 DELGADO BUENO, Juan Guillermo.
UPn  11/04 1340  Colombian drug suspect spirited to Florida
By KIT BAUMAN
   TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UPI) -- A Colombian hotel owner wanted on
U.S. cocaine trafficking charges dating as far back as early 1983
was spirited out of Bogota Saturday and extradited to Florida,
federal marshals said.    Guillermo Juan Delgado Bueno, a former
Florida resident, appeared under heavy guard before a U.S.
magistrate in Tallahassee, who ordered the suspect held until a
formal arraignment later, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service
said.
   "The only comment we can make is that he's being held in a very
secure area in the Northern District of Florida," the spokesman
said.    Delgado Bueno was flown out of Colombia shortly after 6:30
a.m. Saturday by the service's Special Operations Group and arrived
in Tallahassee at 10 a.m., authorities said.
   He was indicted in Gainesville, Fla., in 1985 on cocaine
trafficking conspiracy charges and also has been indicted on
similar charges in California in 1983 and in Illinois in 1985.
   Colombian authorities arrested Delgado Bueno, 54, on Sept. 14,
but did not turn him over to U.S. marshals until Saturday, in
response to an extradition [24H[JPress  for more !
[H[JExecutive News Svc.
request from the Justice Department.
   "The (Florida) indictment alleges that Delgado Bueno was part of
a significant drug trafficking conspiracy," said W.L. McLendon, a
Florida spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service. "It is an
important development in the fight against drugs that he has now
been returned to the United States to finally go on trial."
   Government and commercial buildings in Colombia have been the
scenes of bombings and assasinations since the nation's powerful
drug cartels declared war against the government earlier this year
in retaliation for a new policy of extraditing suspected drug
traffickers to the United States for trial.    It was reported
Saturday in Colombia that judges in the drug cartel stronghold of
Medellin have threatened to resign unless the government takes
steps to protect them from attacks by drug-financed hit squads.   
Delgado Bueno was indicted in Florida on Oct. 25, 1985, on charges
of conspiring with 17 other persons from 1980 to 1985 to import
cocaine into the United States.
   The Colombian hotel owner was also indicted by a federal grand
jury in San Francisco on Feb. 11, 1983, on charges of conspiring
from 1976 to 1980 in California, Florida, and Texas to import
cocaine.
   U.S. Marshal Glen E. Robinson in the Northern District of
California said [24H[JPress  for more !
[H[JExecutive News Svc.
that the indictment there alleged Delgado Bueno conspired to import
280 pounds of cocaine, including drugs that were hidden in
shipments of wood sent from Colombia to San Francisco.
   Robinson said the businessman and a co-defendant were paid $2
million from one sale of 85 pounds of cocaine.
   Delgado Bueno also was one of eight people named in an Illinois
federal indictment returned Sept. 27, 1985. He was charged, under
the alias Willie Bueno, with conspiring to possess cocaine with
intent to distribute in Jackson County, Ill., from 1981 to 1983.
   Delgado Bueno was a resident of Miami and Key Biscayne, Fla.,
but recently resided in Cali and San Andres, Colombia, authorities
said.
DIAS AZCA, Jose.  
Caught in Uchiza, Peru in December 1986.   Dias  Azca  is  an 
assassin  who  in  1977  murdered  a policeman who infiltrated the
RIVERA LLORENTE group of traffickers in Peru.
DONADO ALVAREZ, Alvaro and  Rafael. 
Northcoast traffickers who reside in
the same municipality as the DANGONG family.  Wanted in the USA.
DONADO SUAREZ, Rodolfo  and  Alvaro.    
Rodolfo is a Colombian northcoast Capo who works with the Medellin
cartel.  An extradition request for Alvaro is outstanding from the 
southern  district  of  Florida,  USA.    Both reside in
Barranquilla and both were indicted in the US in 1986 for shipping
a number of 500 kilo loads between  their  ranch  at  El  Banco,
Colombia through Cat Cay, Bahamas, to Florida.    Rodolfo  was 
arrested  in  Cartegena in January 1987. Alvaro was arrested in
Valledupar in February 1987.
DUARTE ACERO, Jose Ivan.
Indicted in Miami for the attempted murder of two DEA agents.
ECHEVERRY URIBE, Tulio Mario. 
Gained prominence in 1986 when found to be the owner of 3 ton  HCL 
shipment  bound  through  Venezuela.  His partner was Carlos
ALCANTARA, and the two apparently are tied to the Cali group.
EDDY, Paul.
Reporter for the London Sunday Times; co-author of The Cocaine
Wars.ELN (EjŽrcito de Liberacion Nacional-National Liberation
Army).
Colombian terrorist groups; unlike others, not a part of President
Barco's attempt to make peace with insurgents during 1989 war with
drug traffickers.

UPne 10/25 1710  Leftist rebels occupy two towns in Colombia
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- About 100 leftist rebels attacked and
occupied two northeastern Colombia towns for several hours
Wednesday morning, killing at lest two people and wounding another
six, authorities said.
   The attacks were not believed linked to the nation's war with
cocaine cartels but a bomb that rocked the city of Cartagena late
Tuesday was apparently the work of drug-financed hit men, police
said.
   In Washington, the Justice Department announced Wednesday that
it has asked Colombia to extradite two suspected drug traffickers
captured last weekend.
   At 1:20 a.m., 70 guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, or
ELN, attacked a police post in La Vega, North Santander state. Two
policemen were wounded in the ensuing battle.
   At the same time about 30 ELN rebels opened fire on a police
barracks in Cachira, destroying the station, killing one person and
wounding four policemen, who were flown by helicopter to a hospital
in the regional capital Bucaramanga.
   Police reported one guerrilla was killed and several wounded.
   "We can't go out into the street because they're still
fighting," a resident of Cachira said in a morning telephone
interview with RCN radio as machine gun fire echoed in the
background.
   The rebels apparently occupied Cachira for several hours
Wednesday morning, but were driven out my police and soldiers by 8
a.m.
   Police said an army division was combing the sparcely populated
region for the 100 insurgents who retreated into the mountains
surrounding the towns, about 250 miles northeast of Bogota.
   In Cartagena, troops lined the streets to prevent a repeat of
Tuesday night's car bomb attack that damaged 25 homes in the
hotel-studded resort area Bocagrande.
   The car bomb, apparently part of the drug lords' campaign
against the government, exploded about 10 p.m. in the luxury
neighborhood, leaving substantial material damage but no
casualties.
   Police and soldiers set up road blocks in strategic parts of the
city, which was hosting a national business convention this week.
   Also Tuesday, the bodyguard of an employee of the embattled El
Espectador newspaper was shot to death in Medellin as he waited at
a red light on his motorcycle, police said Wednesday.
   Luis Osorio Macias, 29, was shot by unknown gunmen and his
girlfriend was killed a short time later by gunmen who broke into
her home.
   El Espectador has been devastated by killings, bombings and
death threats because of its anti-drug stance, but police did not
immediately link Tuesday's shootings to the cartels.
   Earlier Tuesday, a Supreme Court judge said Colombia cannot use
a presidential emergency order to extradite accused drug
traffickers wanted in the United States, but can arrange
extraditions under a 101-year-old treaty.
   Confusion over the effect of the judge's statement Tuesday
prompted the government to publicly reaffirm its commitment to
extraditing drug suspects under the state-of-siege decree signed
Aug. 18 by President Virgilio Barco.
   "This measure was unanimously declared constitutional by the
Supreme Court of Justice," Colombia's National Security Council
said in a statement issued in Bogota and Washington. The council
comprises heads of the government, military and police.
   After a wave of assassinations, Barco established
"administrative" extraditions permitting the Justice Ministry to
send drug suspects to the United States without  consulting the
Supreme Court.
   Four suspects have been extradited since Barco issued the order
and powerful cocaine cartels declared war on the government,
staging a series of bloody bombings and killings.
   In Washington, Justice Department spokesman David Runkel said
Wednesday "there's been some confusion out of the court system in
Colombia" but added, "We expect the extradition process to
continue."
  He also said the United States asked Colombia to extradite two
people to North Carolina to face trial on 1988 cocaine conspiracy
charges.
   The two suspects were arrested Saturday in Bucaramanga. They
were identified as Roberto Caballero Rangel and his sister, Diana
Caballero Rangel-Gamber.
   "We know of nothing in Colombia that would adversely impact the
current extradition proceedings," Runkel said. "We believe the
Barco government is performing courageously in extraditing the
people it has extradited."



APn  10/25 1753  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Leftist guerrillas armed with mortars
and automatic weapons stormed two northeastern towns Wednesday in
Colombia's worst rebel violence since 1987.
   Initial reports from helicopter crews who retrieved the dead
indicated five policemen and one guerrilla were killed and nine
policemen wounded, the army reported.
   Military spokesmen said the attackers apparently were from the
National Liberation Army, a group led by a defrocked Roman Catholic
priest who patterns his insurgency on the teachings of Cuban leader
Fidel Castro.
   Wednesday's raids apparently were not related to the government
war on drug traffickers that began Aug. 19.
   The army has claimed for seven years, without producing proof,
that some leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers work in tandem.
   It has had difficulty supporting the claim because right-wing
death squads financed by the cocaine barons have killed hundreds of
the guerrillas' supporters.
   More than 700 members of the leftist Patriotic Union party alone
have been killed by death squads that began operating six years
ago, after guerrillas kidnapped a drug trafficker's sister and a
$10 million ransom was paid.
   On Wednesday, about 60 men and women invaded Cachira, a town of
15,000 people 250 miles northeast of Bogota, at 1 a.m. and
destroyed the police station with mortar fire, said a statement
from divisional army headquarters in Bucaramanga.
   Two policemen and a guerrilla were killed and four policemen
were wounded during five hours of fighting in Cachira, said the
statement broacast by the Caracol radio network.
   Police reinforcements arriving along a dirt road at 6 a.m. were
ambushed by the guerrillas, who killed three more officers and
wounded three, the statement said.
   Another band of guerrillas tried unsuccessfully to overrun the
police station at La Vega, about 15 miles from Cachira, and two
policemen were wounded in a seven-hour battle, the army statement
reported.
   It said the raiders left pamphlets and wall graffiti in both
towns indicating they were from the National Liberation Army led by
Manuel Perez, the defrocked priest.
   His group has become the most active of a half-dozen guerrilla
guerrilla organizations and has blown holes in Colombia's biggest
oil pipeline several times.
   Perez organized it in 1960 and is believed to have about 2,000
followers.
   Army reports said his guerrillas dynamited a power line and
killed two peasants accused of being informants Tuesday, and shot
down a helicopter carrying aboiut $84,000 to a government-owned
farmers' bank Saturday, killing the pilot and a bank employee.
   The rebel violence Wednesday was the worst since guerrillas
raided an average of one town a week two years ago and more than 50
people were killed in one month.
APn  11/08 1710  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Soldiers killed eight guerrillas in
northern Colombia, the army reported Wednesday, and a newspaper
said a former rebel leader who had served in Congress was convicted
of treason by former comrades.    Meanwhile an anti-drug crusading
journalist shot three times by hitmen hired by traffickers died
Wednesday from his injuries. Interior Minister Carlos Lemmos
Simmonds deplored the slaying of World Vision TV news director
Jorge Enrique Pulido, who was shot Oct. 29 in his car in downtown
Bogota.    "We will continue lamenting deaths such as these until
we win the war against drug traffickers," Simmonds said. Pulido,
the 46th journalist to be killed in Colombia since 1977, was the
most recent victim of the war that began in mid-August when the
government vowed to crack down on Colombian drug barons.    El
Tiempo said the death sentence of Braulio Herrera was suspended and
he went into exile in Moscow.
   A Defense Ministry statement said the guerrillas killed in two
battles Tuesday were from the National Liberation Army, one of six
Colombian guerrilla groups.
   It said five were killed near Bagre, a town 200 miles north of
Bogota, and three near Simiti, 230 miles north of the capital.   
Herrera was a field commander of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed
Forces guerrilla group.
   He was elected to Congress in 1986 for the Patriotic Union
Party, which guerrillas organized as part of a peace effort by
Belisario Betancur, then president of Colombia.
   For years, the guerrilla group had controlled a part of central
Colombia called the Middle Magdalena, a stretch of about 200 miles
along the Magdalena River, which runs nearly the length of
Colombia.
   Paramilitary groups opposed to the guerrillas gained control of
the area during the truce with the Betancur government. The
guerrilla leadership asked Herrera to take command in the Middle
Magdalena and restore its dominance, El Tiempo said, quoting four
former guerrillas.
   Herrera had 109 combatants of a unit of about 200 guerrillas
executed on suspicion of being army spies, El Tiempo quoted the
former insurgents as saying.    It said that practically destroyed
guerrilla influence in the area and the guerrilla high command
tried Herrera for treason. El Tiempo did not say when the trial
occurred.
   According to newspaper, the former guerrillas said a group of
leftists they did not identify interceded to get the death sentence
suspended.    The pro-Soviet Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces
was organized more than 30 years ago and is believed to have about
3,000 combatants.EPL (EjŽrcito Popular de Liberacion)-Popular
Liberation Army.
Colombian terrorist group; part of President Barco's attempt to
reach peace with insurgents during 1989 war with drug
traffickers.ESCOBAR GAVIRIA, Pablo Emilio,  b.  1950.    AKA Carlos
ECHAVARRIA.  


As a youth was charged  with  everything  from  car theft  to 
murder to kidnapping.
Began with Medellin group as a  triggerman.    In June 1976 he was
captured in Itaqui, Antioquia with 39 kg of cocaine.   He was
jailed and later freed along with his cousin Gustavo GAVIRIA by
judge Franco Guido CAICEDO JURADO.  In 1978 was member of group
that took  important  steps  in the attempt to move from a loose
association of Medellin  traffickers  to  form  a  cartel to
control the movement of cocaine from leaf  to  distribution  in 
the USA.  Among Escobar's early companions were:
GARCIA BOLIVAR, Hernando de Jesus
GAVIRIA RIVERO, Gustavo de  Jesus,  a  cousin,  who along with
Pablo ESCOBAR  was  involved  in  moving  HCL  from  Ecuador  to 
Colombia  in 1976.
Captured, jailed, and with the help of Escobar who was also jailed,
killed off all accusers was freed. HENAO VALLEJO, Mario,
(brother-in-law). HURTADO JARAMILLO, Marco Alonso MAYA ESPINOZA,
James.
 Pablo Escobar was  the  primary  cocaine  HCL  distributor on US
Atlantic Coast and  the  Medellin  contact  with  Panamanian 
strongman  NORIEGA.   His personal pilot was Barry  SEAL,  later 
killed  by cartel gunmen in Louisiana. Generally  considered  the 
"Undisputed   leader"   of  the  Medellin  cartel.
Considered the prime suspect who ordered the assassination of
Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984.   With  his  wife 
he was arrested at a Medellin Police checkpoint in November 86.  He
was soon released, but his wife was held until the proper "payoff"
was made  (or  the proper big cheese contacted).  In July 1987, the
GOC revoked  an  arrest  order  for Escobar after the Colombian
Supreme Court invalidated a treaty by  which  he could have been
extradited to the USA.
A carbomb exploded in front of  his apartment building in January
13, 88, and probably resulted from the ongoing battle  with the
Cali cartel.  *Has had properties expropriated in Miami.*  
Recently, with RODRIGUEZ GACHA helped set up the Magdalena Medio
cocaine complex (he had a major property and zoo at his Hacienda
Napoles in Puerto  Triunfo);  complex  was managed by "Pacho"
BARBOSA ESTUPINAN and JAIRO CORREA. 
His frontmen for investments include:
*RODRIGUEZ PUENTE, Humberto,  former  Department Governor of
Bolivar (Cartagena) and *MENDEZ, Rodney, launderer in  Bogota,  and 
formerly VP of Avianca. Owner of noted  restaurant  in  Bogota.   
He  may  be  a relative of Medellin trafficker Benito MENDEZ in
front of whose residence a carbomb was exploded in 1986.
COVO TORRES, Victor, who  is  probably  still  serving time in US
on narc charges.
BUITRAGO MUSTAFO, Feiser Humberto, and  father, who run some
Escobar businesses.  MOLINA YEPES, Luis Carlos,  identified  as  a
treasurer and renowned
dollar launderer, who is wanted by  the  GOC  for issuing checks
that paid for the murder of Guillermo CANO ISAZA,  former editor of
El Espectador newspaper, Bogota.
Escobar, who has a fortune estimated at more than US$ 2 billion, is
under indictment in Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta.
HL AROUND THE WORLD
   Drug Figure Flees Colombia Shootout
   ---
   From News Services and Staff Reports DD        03/23/88 SO     
  WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 21: A SECTION TX MEDELLIN  Colombia --
   Pablo Escobar Gaviria, sought as a top man in the notorious
Medellin drug cartel, escaped arrest after a shootout early
yesterday between his heavily armed bodyguards and soldiers, the
Army said.
   One man, thought to be one of the bodyguards, was injured, and
25 bodyguards were arrested, the Army said. Guns, documents,
communications equipment and vehicles were seized, it said.
   Escobar Gaviria was indicted on U.S. drug charges in 1986 -- and
again last month along with Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega and 14 others. In January, Colombia issued an order
for his arrest and extradition to the United States.
   The Army said its patrols surrounded his luxury estate before
dawn, but tripped a sophisticated alarm system allowing Escobar
Gaviria to escape in the shootout between troops and his guards.
Troops began searching for him. 
HL U.S. Sues Nine Banks in Drug Money-Laundering
   ---
   BY Michael Isikoff
   Washington Post Staff Writer DD        03/30/89 SO       
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: A SECTION TX The Justice Department,
completing what Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called "the
largest money-laundering crackdown ever carried out," yesterday
sued nine U.S. and foreign banks seeking $433 million in drug money
allegedly laundered through the banks by agents of Colombia's
Medellin cocaine cartel.
   At the same time, federal prosecutors in Atlanta unsealed the
indictment of 29 new defendants in the case, including several
cartel leaders, its chief financial agent and a major Colombian
bank and its Panamanian subsidiary. But the case was marred quickly
when one of the key suspects eluded an undercover Panamanian
Defense Forces (PDF) team that had been planning to arrest him
moments before Thornburgh's 10 a.m. news conference in Washington. 
   During the news conference, Thornburgh and John C. Lawn, head of
the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that the PDF, led by Gen.
Manuel Antonio Noriega, had already arrested the suspect, who was
later identified as Eduardo Martinez of Medellin, Colombia,
allegedly the cartel's chief U.S. money broker. But hours later,
embarrassed Justice Department attorneys acknowledged that Martinez
was being shielded inside a Panamanian bank after being tipped off
to the planned arrest.
   By the end of the day, the PDF team had entered the bank, but
Martinez had "escaped. He's no longer there," one Justice
Department attorney said.
   Some officials said that Martinez may have deduced the plan to
arrest him by hearing accounts of Thornburgh's news conference on
the radio. Another theory is that the PDF, whose leader, Noriega,
was indicted by two U.S. grand juries last year for allegedly
taking payoffs from the cartel, permitted Martinez to escape,
officials said.
   "How it happened that he got away is being investigated," said
David Runkel, chief spokesman for Thornburgh.
   The lawsuits and indictments are the Justice Department's latest
strike against a sophisticated international money-laundering
operation that is believed to have moved $1.2 billion in drug funds
over the past two years. The center of the operation, which the
drug traffickers referred to as "La Mina" or "The Mine," was a
group of Armenian jewelers in Los Angeles who were arrested last
month and charged with routing massive drug profits from around the
country through their jewelry stores and then into cartel bank
accounts in Uruguay and Panama.
   Yesterday's court actions revealed a separate undercover
investigation in Atlanta in which DEA agents posed as money
launderers for the cartel. At one point, Lawn said, a major cartel
operative "told us we were not processing funds quickly enough.
'You should learn from La Mina. They can launder the money in 48
hours.' "
   That comment and the volume of La Mina operations led officials
to conclude that the jewelry store chain was among the principal
cartel money-laundering schemes in the United
   States. The cartel, whose leaders Pablo Escobar and Jorge  Ochoa
were named defendants in the Atlanta indictment, is allegedly
responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United
States. Escobar, Ochoa and other cartel chiefs have been indicted
numerous times by U.S. grand juries but remain at large in
Colombia.
   In an unusual twist, a civil suit filed in New York seeks a
court order demanding that nine banks and three Uruguayan
corporations return $433 million in alleged La Mina profits that
were moved through the banks and transferred to overseas branches.
Among the banks named in the lawsuit were Citibank, the Bank of New
York, Republic National Bank, American Express Bank and the Bank of
Commerce and Credit
International.
   Federal prosecutors stressed that the civil suit does not charge
that the banks knowingly handled drug money. But in a new use of
the civil forfeiture laws, the Justice Department contended that
because the $433 million represented the proceeds from narcotics
sales, the money belonged to the U.S. government and that it was
the obligation of the banks to get it back. 
   "We're saying that money is not due to the dopers; it's due to
us," said Charles Saphos, chief of the Justice Department's
narcotics section.
   John Maloney, a spokesman for Citibank, said late yesterday that
the bank's lawyers had not yet seen the lawsuit and could not
comment on it. But he confirmed that the Justice Department had
frozen some accounts at the bank. "Obviously, we will cooperate,"
Maloney said.
   The only banks that were criminally indicted yesterday were
Banco de Occidente, which has headquarters in Cali, Colombia, and
its Panamanian subsidiary. Banco de Occidente is a major Colombian
bank with 33 branch offices in Bogota and 12 offices in Cali.
Prosecutors charged that Clara Garcia, one of the senior officers
of the Panamanian branch, had traveled to the United States to
review accounts and had told undercover federal agents that the
bank was receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits
from the cartel.
   @CAPTION: Dick Thornburgh.
   @CAPTION: Announcing crackdown on narcotics cartel were Attorney
General Dick Thornburgh, DEA chief John Lawn and FBI Director
William Sessions.
   ART:phm
phm  afp 

Cuba Details Drug Deals
   Officers Said Involved With Medellin Cartel    ---
   BY Julia Preston
   Washington Post Foreign Service
DD        06/23/89
SO        WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 27: A SECTION TX MIAMI  June
22 --
   The Cuban government said today that high-level Cuban military
officers who were arrested June 12 in Havana had worked with
Colombia's notorious Medellin cartel to smuggle at least six tons
of cocaine to the United States since 1986.    The revelation came
in a long, exhaustively detailed report this morning in Granma, the
official Communist Party daily. The article suggested that the
vastly wealthy Colombian cartel, which has undermined judicial and
political systems throughout much of Latin America, has also been
able to penetrate Cuba's military up to senior levels.    The
newspaper article said the officers, led by Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa
Sanchez and Col. Antonio de la Guardia Font, had collected $3.4
million for facilitating the transshipment of cocaine and marijuana
from Colombia through Cuban airspace and waters to the United
States. Government investigators reportedly found $1.1 million
stashed near the homes of the two officers and four of their
collaborators.    Granma said the government was disclosing the
crimes to "tear up from the roots" the spread of narcotics
trafficking in Cuba. The goverment warned that henceforth it will
shoot down any aircraft that fails to identify itself properly.   
According to the Granma account, Ochoa's key aide in the drug ring
was Cuban Capt. Jorge Martinez Valdez, who in May 1988 met in
Medellin, Colombia, with cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. Ochoa was
said to have been drawn into the drug trade by an American he met
in Panama whose name is given as Frank Morfa.
   Ochoa and his aides were said to have tried to carry out a
number of cocaine shipments through Cuba between 1986 and December
1988. But the efforts were reported to have failed because of
logistical setbacks and poor planning. At one point, Granma said,
Escobar threatened to send a personal mission to Cuba to complain
about the cocaine he lost in these efforts.
   However, a group of traffickers linked to de la Guardia was much
morersuccessful, Granma reported: Between January 1987 and April
1989, the group carriedrout 19 transshipment operations, only four
of which facled.
   De la Guardia, Granma reported, was part of a secret unit in the
Interior Ministry in charge of working with American smugglers to
send Cuba computer parts, medical equipment and other
high-technology U.S. goods, which are banned under the U.S. trade
embargo.
   The article suggested that this type of smuggling had been going
on for years from Varadero Beach, on Cuba's north coast. So for de
la Guardia, it was easy to ship Colombian cocaine -- packed in
Cuban tobacco boxes -- in boats returning to Florida after dropping
off contraband.    These boats also collected cocaine dropped in
flourescent bags from Colombian airplanes flying over Cuban waters.
U.S. drug enforcement officials had noted a surge in cocaine
transshipment from Cuba in recent years and had pinpointed Varadero
as the point of dispatch.
   Granma said President Fidel Castro took note of U.S. Coast Guard
accusations, which coincided with other bits of information
reaching him, and decided to undertake an investigation.
   De la Guardia is said to have made his contacts with the
Colombian cartel through Cuban intelligence agents in Panama. There
have been news reports that several Cuban diplomats were arrested
in Panama and returned to Cuba in recent days.
   Colombian Judge In Drug Case Killed
   ---
   From News Services and Staff Reports
DD        08/18/89
SO        WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 26: A SECTION TX BOGOTA 
Colombia --
   Appeals court judge Carlos Ernesto Valencia was shot dead
Wednesday night just hours after he had upheld an arrest warrant
for accused Medellin drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
   Police said three gunmen riding motorcycles sprayed machine-gun
fire at the judge as he left his office, also wounding his
bodyguard and two passersby. Valencia, 43, died later in a
hospital.
   Colombia's national judges association called yesterday for all
of the country's 4,379 judges to resign en masse after the
assassination as a protest of the government's failure to provide
sufficient protection.  By early yesterday afternoon, 50 of
Bogota's 55 appeals court judges had resigned, Justice Ministry
spokeswoman Amparo Gomez said.    More than 50 judges have been
killed in Colombia over the last decade.

APn  10/11 2233  Colombia-Escobar
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Pablo Escobar Gaviria, the reputed
leader of the largest cocaine cartel in the world, reportedly sent
a letter to the director of the newspaper La Prensa Wednesday
asking for helping in arranging peace talks with the government.
   Escobar heads the list of Colombian drug traffickers wanted by
the United States. The following is a translation by The AP of the
letter, read over the national radio chain Caracol:
   (1) The conversations between us and the government began many
days before the government offered its peace proposal to the
Colombian people.
   (2) Present at the conversations were those of us mentioned by
the national and international press. We made various proposals and
expressed our point of view in several different meetings.
   (3) In those meetings, we complained of the abuses committed
against our innocent families, of the arbitrary detentions of our
elderly and our women, of the repressive raids, of the
confiscations and all the other types of outrages.
   (4) We also let the government know that we have not been, nor
will be, ready to permit these types of infamous violations of all
of our rights.
   (5) We also raised the issue of a Colombian peace founded on a
direct dialogue with the commanders of the country's different
(army) brigades, with the commanders of the different guerrilla
groups, with the commanders the paramilitary and self-defense
groups, with the representatives of the emerald miners and with the
leaders of the different groups of extraditables. One of our own
ideas, the text of one of our own phrases, was included in the text
of the president's Sept. 1, 1988, speech concerning his peace plan.
   Mr. Director: For the sake of peace we ask publicly for your
mediation and for the mediation of the other directors of the
country's important newspapers. We ask publicly for the mediation
of the Catholic Church, and for the participation of the political
class, the judicial powers represented by their unions and
magistrates. We ask publicly for the participation of the
government and the public promise of guarantees, both physical and
judicial, for the participants in the direct dialogue in the search
for peace.
   Mr. Director: Just as war decrees can be issued so can peace
decrees be issued. Colombian peace is more important than the
considerations and conceptions of the other governments of the
world. Pablo Escobar Gaviria
10/12 1400  COLOMBIAN DRUG LORD ASKS FOR PEACE TALKS WITH
GOVERNMENT
BOGOTA, Colombia (OCT. 12) UPI - Pablo Escobar Gaviria, reputed
kingpin of the infamous Medellin drug cartel, publicly called for
a truce in  Colombia's increasingly violent drug wars Thursday and
offered to  negotiate a peace pact. 
   The offer came as national RCN radio said cartel funded hit
squads  continued their terror reign, gunning down two undercover
government drug agents in the town of Cali and exploding another
bomb in Medellin.  
   The explosion blew out windows in some 20 offices and homes in
the area. It appears the bomb went off by accident when it fell out
of a taxi. Witnesses said people riding in the vehicle were
injured.  
   In the coastal town of Cali, police said the two murdered agents
had escaped previous attempts on their lives. A police report
quoted by RCN said the agents who had been on an intelligence
mission were gunned down on a public street by two assassins on a
motorcycle. They died instantly.  
   In an open letter to a Bogota newspaper, Escobar, who tops the
U.S. list of the 12 most wanted Colombian drug figures, asked for
"physical and legal protection for participatns in a direct
dialogue to seek peace."  
   The letter, addressed to Juan Pastrana Arango, director of the
newspaper La Prensa, asked the publisher to help set up such a
dialogue. It was signed by Escobar and carried a print of a right
index finger. Police could not immediately confirm that the print
was Escovar's. Copies of the letter were sent to other news media. 
   Pastrana Arango said he refused the role of mediator because he
doesn't have "the confidence, approximation or contact" with the
parties.  
   Escobar, 39, said in the letter: "We seek peace through direct
dialogue. In the same way that war is declared, peace can also be
declared.  
   "We publicly ask the participation of the government and the
public promise of phycical and legal guarantees for the
participants in a direct dialgue to seek peace."  
   The letter also noted the government met earlier with former
Finance Minister Joaquin Vallejo Arbelaez, who had delivered an
offer by the cartel leaders to end the violence and give up the
drug trafficking  business in exchange for amnesty and immunity
from prosecution on tax  charges.  
   The government rejected the offer. After the Aug. 18
assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan,
President Virgilio Barco  reinstituted an extradition treaty with
the United States by executive  order, leading to a declaration of
war by the so-called "Extraditables". They unleashed a wave of
bombings and killings that have at least 11 people dead and scores
wounded. More than 160 bombs have exploded in Colombia since Aug.
24.  
   On Tuesday drug cartel hitmen killed four people in shooting
incidents in Medellin Tuesday.  
   Two of the victims were employees of the Medellin daily
newspaper El Espectador, whose aggressive campaign against the drug
cartels made it the target of a 200-pound dynamite bomb Sept. 1
that damaged the building and killed two passers-by.  
   In Monterrey, Mexico, on Wednesday, the director of the
newspaper told the Inter-American Press Association that the daily
would continue to fight drug trafficking despite attacks on its
employees.  
   "They want to terrify the press and principally El Espectador
because it has always been a standard-bearer in this fight against
drug trafficking " Luis Gabriel Cano told about 200 media
representatives attending the IAPA's 45th assembly. "We will not
back down in the fight against drug trafficking."  
   The newspaper Wednesday asked the government to protect its
property and employees and suspended delivery in some areas,
complaining of insufficient police protection.  
   Meanwhile, two men wanted in the United States on charges of
drug trafficking and money laundering were arrested Sunday by
secret police in Barranquilla, authorities said Thursday.  
   Leonidas Vargas Vargas and Manuel Palma Molina are being held
for possible extradition to face the U.S. charges, police said.  
   Police said Vargas Vargas is accused of heading commercial
cocaine operations in the United States for the Medellin cartel.  
   The Justice Ministry announced it completed the paperwork on the 
extradition to the United States of Elena Rodriguez Zuniga, held
since  last week. She is believed involved with the Medellin
cartel.  
 THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
                       Copyright Times Mirror Company 1989
 DATE: SUNDAY    October 22, 1989
 EDITION: Home Edition                        LENGTH: LONG 
PART-NAME: ONE                               PAGE: 1  PART-NUMBER:
A                               COLUMN: 1  TYPE-OF-MATERIAL:
Profile
 DATELINE: BOGOTA, Colombia
 DESK: Foreign
 SOURCE: WILLIAM R. LONG
         TIMES STAFF WRITER
              COLOMBIA DRUG LORDS FIND FUGITIVE LIFE ERODES POWER
     Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha have joined the
notorious ranks  of Billy the Kid and Al Capone. After years on the
rampage, the two Colombian  drug lords seem bigger than life and as
bad as bandits come.     Forbes magazine estimates the pair's
wealth in the billions of dollars. In  addition to buying the
compliance of countless Colombian officials, they are nown to
finance paramilitary platoons in rural areas and squads of hired 
killers in the cities. They have been accused of ordering hundreds
of killings, including those of government ministers, presidential
candidates,  police officials, judges and journalists.
    Escobar, 39, and Rodriguez Gacha, 42, have come close to cowing
a nation of  30 million people with bullets and bribes. The
ruthless methods that made them  infamous have even added a new
word to Colombia's lexicon of violence:  narcoterrorismo .
    In the last two months, however, the dreaded cartel barons have
lost much  of the fearsome power that their guns and money gave
them. Beleaguered by  government security forces, the two have
suspended most of their drug  operations in Colombia to concentrate
on avoiding capture, Colombian and  American officials say.
    Their trafficking organization, known as the Medellin cartel,
has been hit  hard by an onslaught of government raids and the
arrests of key associates.  Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha are said to
move from hide-out to hide-out,  staying just a jump ahead of
investigators and security forces.     ''Reportedly, they came very
close to being captured several times and  managed to escape,'' a
senior American official said the other day.     In an attempt to
intimidate the society and undermine the government's  declared
goal of seizing them for extradition to the United States, the 
narcoterrorists are pressing a campaign of dynamite bombings. At
least 150 bombs, most of them blamed on Escobar and Rodriguez
Gacha, have exploded  during the last two months, killing a total
of 10 people. 
   In the deadliest blast so far, more than 100 pounds of dynamite
set off in  a parked car Monday killed four employees of the
pro-government Vanguardia  Liberal newspaper in Bucaramanga, 190
miles north of Bogota.     The official anti-drug blitz has
concentrated on Escobar, Rodriguez Gacha  and their associates
rather than other trafficking groups.     ''It is a war against
Escobar and (Rodriguez) Gacha, obviously,'' said Juan  Carlos
Pastrana, editor of the Bogota newspaper La Prensa. ''I haven't
seen  any war against the others.''
    Security forces have raided scores of ranches, urban
apartments, offices  and other properties. Authorities have seized
hundreds of airplanes and  automobiles, and large stockpiles of
weapons and drugs.     Not since 1984, when the Medellin cartel was
accused of assassinating  Colombia's justice minister, has the
pressure to capture Escobar and Rodriguez  Gacha been so strong.
That year, the two took temporary refuge in neighboring  Panama,
but now they are known to be hiding in Colombia.     The government
has issued ''wanted'' posters bearing photos of the two men  and
offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to their arrest. 
   Authorities have announced the arrests of nearly a dozen key
members of  Escobar's and Rodriguez Gacha's organizations,
including Jose Rafael Abello,  identified by police as the No. 4
man in the*Medellin*cartel.*Four other accused Colombian
traffickers have been sent to the United States for trial  since
President Virgilio Barco Vargas, using his powers under a
longstanding state of siege, issued a decree Aug. 18 permitting
extradition     Still, the most important Colombian traffickers
remain at large. They  include Jorge Luis Ochoa, another leader in
the*Medellin-based*network, and  Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and
Jose Santacruz Londono, reputedly the top  leaders of a
rival*cartel*based in the city of Cali.     The most-wanted bandits
of all are Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha; no other  traffickers have
come close to combining cunning, greed and open violence with  such
frightening force as those two.
    ''Their power arises from the fact that they have the biggest
enterprises,  the richest and the most brutal,'' said the senior
U.S. official, who asked  not to be further identified.
    ''They are very mobile,'' the official added. ''These guys have
been on the  lam now for some time. Their operations, their life
style, have been geared to  keeping moving.''
    Because of the official blitz, Colombian traffickers have
''closed down  large portions of their cocaine production,'' the
American official said.  ''They are transiting very little cocaine
out of Colombia.'' As a result,  Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha can
keep a lower profile.     ''When they close down, then it becomes
much more difficult to find them  because they are not doing their
usual things.'' he said. ''They are not out taking care of their
trafficking empire.''
    At the same time, however, the confiscation of many ranches and
offices, communications equipment and other property belonging to
the two has limited  their resources and hiding places, said a high
Colombian police official.     ''They are feeling seriously
wounded,'' he said. The official, who asked to  remain anonymous
for security reasons, confirmed that Escobar and Rodriguez  Gacha
have evaded capture in more than one close call recently.    
''Those operations generally fail because there are so many people
who are  their friends,'' he said. But he added that the two are
starting to lose the  collaboration of Colombians who once aided
them out of fear or friendship,  especially in rural areas where
they hide.
    ''They are now more alone,'' the official said. ''They are
disoriented and  scared. They see that the authorities are really
after them, and they see that  money no longer works.''
    He speculated that Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha must be getting
nervous,  more prone to make mistakes.
    ''We know more or less in what area they are hiding,'' he said.
''We are  looking for the right moment and the right opportunity.'' 
   Meanwhile, he said, cocaine traffic out of Colombia has been
reduced to  ''small shipments'' by lesser-known traffickers. He
also said that Escobar,  Rodriguez Gacha and other drug lords are
stashing their cocaine stocks, which  are appreciating in value as
the reduced flow pushes up prices in the United States.
    ''They might be producing, but very little, maybe 20%,'' the
official said. Both this official and the American disagreed with
speculation from U.S.  law enforcement officers that large cargoes
of cocaine recently seized, such  as the 19.8 tons discovered Sept.
29 in a Sylmar warehouse, had been shipped  since the Colombian
crackdown.
    An officer in another police agency said the continuing
government campaign  is digging up a growing body of information,
which is being collected and  constantly analyzed in computers.
Greater knowledge about the operations of  Escobar and Rodriguez
Gacha is putting them in an increasingly vulnerable  position and
giving authorities a moral boost, according to the official.    
''The intelligence is producing more and more results every day,''
he said.  ''We are stronger today, much more capable. The personnel
is much more  eager.''
    The*Medellin*cartel*is not a true*cartel*in the business sense,
but rather  a loose association of drug makers, distributors,
transportation specialists  and others. Although Escobar is
regarded as the richest and most powerful of  them all, there is no
structure with formal hierarchy and chains of command.     Many
analysts say the trafficking organizations are more of a Mafia than
a *cartel.*In fact, Escobar is sometimes called ''El Padrino,''
Spanish for ''the  Godfather.''
    Short and pudgy, with curly black hair and hazel eyes, he went
to high school in a blue-collar district of*Medellin,*now a city of
2 million people.  His first known business venture was stealing
gravestones so that they could be resurfaced and resold.
    Later he became a car thief and a bodyguard for an electronics
smuggler. He  made a quick $100,000 in the early 1970s by kidnaping
and ransoming a*Medellin* executive.
    In 1976, police arrested him for possession of 39 pounds of
cocaine.  Typically, Escobar never went to trial. A year after the
bust, gunmen killed  the two arresting officers.
    By then, Escobar's cocaine-smuggling gang was known on the
streets of *Medellin*as Los Pablos. Business boomed in the late
1970s, and by the early  1980s, the newly rich kingpin was
investing heavily in real estate, including  an $8-million
apartment complex in Florida.
    His $60-million Colombian ranch, called Napoles, boasted a
spacious zoo  with African animals and a bullet-riddled sedan that
was said to have belonged  to John Dillinger or Al Capone.
    Escobar won election as an alternate member of the Colombian
Congress in  1982, filling in on the floor when the full member was
absent. In*Medellin,*he  sought respectability with his own radio
show, newspaper and a civic program  called*''Medellin*Without
Slums.'' In his most famous act of philanthropy, he  financed
Barrio Pablo Escobar, a hillside housing development for former
slum  dwellers.
   But those who are familiar with Escobar's business methods were
undeceived  by the Mr. Nice Guy image.
   ''More than anybody in the*Medellin*cartel,*Escobar was known as
an  enforcer,'' wrote Miami Herald reporter Guy Gugliotta in
''Kings of Cocaine,''  an authoritative 1989 book on
the*cartel.*''He never forgot an insult; he held  grudges; he took
revenge.''
    Among killings Escobar has been charged with or accused of are
the  assassinations of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in
April, 1984;  Superior Court Judge Tulio Castro Gil in July, 1985;
former anti-narcotics  police Col. Jaime Ramirez in November, 1986;
Editor-in-Chief Guillermo Cano of  the Bogota newspaper El
Espectador in December, 1986, and Atty. Gen. Carlos  Mauro Hoyos in
January, 1988.
    Escobar's partner, Rodriguez Gacha, is equally ruthless and
vindictive. He  has been charged in some of the same killings and
in others, including the  assassination of former leftist
presidential candidate Jaime Pardo Leal in  October, 1987. Both
Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha are implicated in the slaying  of
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan on Aug. 18, the act that
prompted  President Barco to launch his campaign.
    And both have been charged with issuing orders to kill dozens
of rural  workers in massacres by ''paramilitary'' commandos.
Escobar and Rodriguez  Gacha, who own numerous ranches, are
believed to have financed dozens of armed  groups that originally
were formed to protect ranchers against guerrillas but became tools
for narcoterrorism.
    Rodriguez Gacha also has marshaled groups of gunmen this year
in a violent campaign to take over rich emerald mines in a
mountainous area north of Bogota. The so-called ''Emerald War''
began in February when gunmen killed  emerald tycoon Gilberto
Molina, who was once known as Rodriguez Gacha's friend  and mentor,
along with 16 other persons at a party in Molina's home.    
Rodriguez Gacha's hometown is Pacho, on the southern edge of the
emerald  fields. He grew up poor, and like many Colombian
campesinos , his formal  education did not go beyond grade school.
    His friendly country manners and his fabulous financial success
made him a  popular celebrity for miles around. In the town of La
Dorada, west of Pacho,  Rodriguez Gacha celebrated his birthday in
May, 1986, with a three-day party  that has became famous
throughout Colombia.
    Escobar, Ochoa and other drug lords attended the public bash,
highlighted  by a horse parade through the town, according to press
reports. Even though  Rodriguez Gacha had more than 100 bodyguards
on hand for the occasion, a local  police commander provided
officers for security.
    Known as ''El Mexicano'' because of his fascination with
Mexico, Rodriguez  Gacha owns a string of ranches in the Pacho area
with Mexican names such as  Cuernavaca, Chihuahua, Sonora and
Mazatlan.
    ''He ran the Pacho area,'' an intelligence official told The
Times in  September. In a later interview, the same official said
security forces were about to close in on Rodriguez Gacha more than
two months ago at a discotheque  he owns in Pacho, but residents
tipped him off in time to escape.
   ''He had the sympathy of the majority of the town,'' the
official said.     His friends also apparently included military
officers. A 1988  investigation of the kingpin's telephone bills in
Pacho revealed calls to  several military headquarters.
    In recent weeks, Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha, apparently weary
of their  life on the run, have issued repeated messages calling
for a ''dialogue'' with  authorities to negotiate a peace
settlement.
    ''This is what I propose,'' Escobar was quoted as saying in an
interview  published in late August by the French newspaper
Liberation. ''We will give  the government all of the confiscated
properties and also the airplanes. Our  only desire is to integrate
into society, legal society, but it is the  government that doesn't
want it.''
    Liberation said he added: ''If total war must be waged, we will
do it until  the end.''
    Also in late August, Rodriguez Gacha told a Colombian
television journalist  by telephone that the traffickers would give
up their drug business in  exchange for amnesty.
    ''We are fighting, trying to be heard so that they will
dialogue with us,''  Rodriguez Gacha said. Authorities barred
Colombian media from airing the taped  interview.
   In late September, both Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha renewed
their proposals  for a dialogue in telephone calls to Norberto
Morales, chairman of the Colombian House of Representatives.
Morales said that they both offered to  ''put an end to the war and
bring several million dollars into the  country.''
    Barco vows that he will not relent in his ''crusade'' against
traffickers,  but Colombian political scientist Rodrigo Losada says
the narcoterrorists are  also unlikely to relent.
    ''We are going down a blind alley, in a sense,'' Losada said.
''I don't  believe we have the means to guarantee that we will free
ourselves of this  problem. It is a very terrible situation.''
    Losada said he fears that Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha will
escalate their  terror campaign, targeting important political
figures for more of what the  press here describes as
''magnicides.''
    ''If the narcoterrorism stays at the current level, the country
can  tolerate that for a long time,'' said Losada, a researcher
with the Bogota  think tank named Instituto SER. ''But if the
narcotraficantes  are able to  strike very strong blows, such as
killing a former president, the government  might give in.''
 PHOTOGRAPH:   (Bulldog Edition) Pablo Escobar
 PHOTOGRAPHER: Reuters
Press (return) to continue...->  PHOTOGRAPH:   (Bulldog Edition) TV
wanted posters offer rewards                for capture of drug
lords Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo
               Rodriguez Gacha.
 PHOTOGRAPHER: Associated Press
 KEYWORDS: FUGITIVES
          *MEDELLIN*CARTEL*
Colombia's War on Drugs Zeroes In on Just Two Men Capture of Cartel
Leaders Grows Urgent --- BY Michael Getler AND     Eugene Robinson
Washington Post Foreign Service DD     10/29/89 SO     
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: A SECTION TX     
   BOGOTA  Colombia Oct. 28 -- The Colombian government's war
against drug trafficking has become a war focused on capturing or
killing two men -- Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, the
two most violent of the Medellin cartel's drug lords. With a new
public opinion poll released Friday showing support waning for the
government's hard-line stand, and with prominent politicians
calling for negotiations with the drug traffickers to stem domestic
violence, it has become more urgent for the government to show
significant results from President Virgilio Barco's two-month-old
declaration of "total war."
   That effort is now centered almost exclusively on Escobar and
Rodriguez Gacha, as indicated by the government's decision Friday
to more than double its reward -- from $250,000 to $625,000 -- for
information leading to the capture of either man. No price has been
put on the head of any other accused trafficker. Escobar, 39, made
his reputation as an "enforcer" for the Medellin cartel and now is
considered a kind of first-among-equals among the group's leaders.
He has bestowed gifts on poor Medellin neighborhoods, was once
chosen by voters as a congressional alternate and is believed
behind many of the most notorious cartel-backed slayings. Rodriguez
Gacha, 42, is suspected of being behind the assassination Aug. 18
of Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, a popular politician who was considered
likely to be elected Colombia's next president in May. Rodriguez
Gacha is known as "El Mexicano" because of his infatuation with
Mexican culture and rose to prominence in the violent world of
emerald dealing before branching into drugs. Both men maintain
private armies of trained killers and have been linked to rightist
death-squad slayings of leftist activists. Eliminating Escobar and
Rodriguez Gacha -- if the informer-riddled police and military can
catch up with them -- would give the government its single most
crucial payoff, according to political, diplomatic and other
sources here who follow the anti-drug campaign closely. It would,
in this view, remove the two men believed responsible for a large
share of the assassinations, kidnappings and bombings that have
sown fear throughout Colombian cities and restore the government's
credibility. At first, the Colombian public overwhelmingly backed
Barco's crackdown, which was announced hours after the
assassination of Galan. The government made quick and unprecedented
strides against the traffickers -- seizing expensive homes,
ranches, airfields, cocaine processing labs and large amounts of
cash and drugs. Authorities conducted raids throughout the country
and made thousands of arrests. But only hundreds remain in custody,
and they include none of the dozen or so kingpins who run the two
global rings based in Medellin and Cali that control about 80
percent of the cocaine that enters the United States. In the past
several weeks, as the number of more readily accessible targets has
been depleted, the focus of the government's efforts has shifted
from what has been criticized as a "body-count" strategy of seizing
assets toward an all-out effort to capture Escobar and Rodriguez
Gacha. What impact the removal of those two drug lords would have
on the $4 billion annual Colombian share of the international drug
trade is debatable. Many experts believe there are many others who
can take over in Medellin. Also, the equally large Cali cartel --
a lower-profile organization that also uses threats and murder but
avoids the dramatic violence of the Medellin cartel -- would still
have to be dealt with. But the benefits within Colombia -- in
popular and political terms -- of a reduction in the kind of
violence associated with the current leaders of the Medellin cartel
are not disputed. One leading political figure here, who also asked
not to be identified, claims that he has been told that leaders of
the two cartels met secretly in Panama in recent weeks and that
Escobar asked his Cali counterparts to form a common front in the
face of the government crackdown. According to this account, which
could not be verified, Escobar was rebuffed by Cali leaders who,
the source said, responded: "We didn't start this war. You are the
ones who are killing people. You are the ones who are killing
judges. . . . This is your problem." The public opinion poll
released Friday is the first concrete indication that the drug
traffickers' campaign of terror bombings on the one hand and
repeated calls for negotiation on the other has begun to affect the
way Barco's drug war is viewed by many Colombians. There have been
more than 200 violent attacks since the traffickers began their
retaliation against Barco's crackdown, according to government
figures, most of them bombings. The attacks have resulted in at
least 30 deaths and more than 100 injuries. The poll, conducted by
the National Polling Center for the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo and
the Caracol national radio network, showed that 61 percent of
Colombians support dialogue as the way to resolve the problem of
drug trafficking, with only 30 percent in favor of taking "a strong
hand." This marks a clear decline in the strong national support
for Barco's hard-line approach in the immediate aftermath of the
Galan assassination, when polls showed large majorities of
Colombians in favor of confiscating drug suspects' assets,
extraditing them to face trial in the United States and the other
tough measures he launched. This week, following release in the
press of the latest of a series of letters from the traffickers
asking for dialogue, the heads of both chambers of the Colombian
Congress said they would participate in negotiations under some
circumstances. Several other prominent political figures, notably
Medellin Mayor Juan Gomez, have been saying for some time that the
solution lies through negotiation. What is unresolved is whether
many of those who favor dialogue with the traffickers would be
willing to accept tacitly the operation of the cartels if the
drug-related domestic violence were ended. Opponents of dialogue
argue that it would mean "the end of Colombian democracy," in the
words of Maria Jimena Duzan, a columnist for the Bogota daily
newspaper El Espectador. "The narcos' proposal to stop the violence
would really say that we -- the traffickers -- run the government,
and not the state," she said. Those who support Barco's tough
stand, including El Espectador's editor, Fernando Cano, fear that
the drug lords have gained ground on public opinion these last
several weeks because Barco has inexplicably remained silent in the
face of the calls for dialogue. "People are again becoming passive
because he's not been out there leading the people," Cano said. The
drug traffickers are running a "well-managed campaign on the
political and local level in favor of dialogue, but there has been
silence from Barco." Barco did reject the traffickers' latest
proposal for talks, but the rejection came in a communique issued
in the National Security Council, dealing mainly with a recent
Supreme Court decision on the extradition issue. No one doubts
Barco's commitment to the drug war or his resolve to reject any
compromise or dialogue with the traffickers. But if Barco continues
to lose support between now and next May's election and shows no
new results, such as the capture of Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha, it
will be even more difficult for his successor to carry on a hard
line. "The only way to stop this is to catch them within the next
six months," said Duzan, who said she fears that the establishment,
including business interests, will see that "the only way to save
their interests is to accept a dialogue, perhaps without saying so
openly." Cesar Gaviria of Barco's Liberal Party, thought to be
leading the presidential race, was close to Galan and has been
consistently tough toward the drug traffickers. But Ernesto Samper,
another prominent candidate from the Liberal Party who also
supports Barco's crackdown, said he believes a broader, more
"global" approach is needed. "A war against Gacha and Escobar is
quite different from a war against the phenomenon of drug
trafficking," he said. "The feeling that the people have in this
country is that we are fighting two people." "The people in the
street are starting to say, 'This is not our problem. We are
suffering. We are innocent people. The government can't stop this
bombing. We are paying the costs, and this is not our war,' "
Samper said. "So the people say, 'Okay, where are these two guys,'
and they think it is impossible to win the war because the
government can't catch them." Samper, like many Colombian leaders,
believes the war can never be won until the United States controls
its consumption problem, but that in the meantime Colombia is
paying a disproportionately high price in suffering. Many
Colombians say they would like to get rid of drug trafficking
altogether, but are convinced that Colombia can never accomplish
this by itself. Since 1980, about 350 judicial employees, including
50 judges, have been killed in drug-related violence. About 45
employees of news organization have been murdered, eight since the
government's war against the cocaine barons began. Thousands have
died from political violence in the past decade, including police
officers, local officials and more than 500 members of a leftist
party, the Patriotic Union, that has been trying to organize in the
countryside. On Friday, a leftist political leader at a heavily
guarded state government building in Medellin was killed by
submachine gun fire, and a police officer at a base near Bogota was
killed by a bomb. "There is no question the cartels have been hurt
by what he has done," one U.S. official said of Barco. Aircraft
flights from neighboring Peru to Colombia carrying cocaine for
final processing have reportedly been cut by half, the official
said, as has the local price in Peru of less refined coca paste.
But Barco's campaign ultimately will depend on whether the military
and police forces here can be sufficiently cleansed of paid
informers or bribed officials to carry out major operations as
sensitive as the capture of the two Medellin kingpins -- a daunting
task under the best of circumstances in this sprawling, rugged
nation of 30 million people. Gen. Miguel Maza, head of the umbrella
security and investigative agency known as the DAS and acknowledged
as the most effective law enforcement official in the fight against
the traffickers, has boasted on several occasions that the police
and the military came close to capturing Escobar outside Medellin
and Rodriguez Gacha near the town of Pacho but missed them by
minutes. His comments, however, are now widely viewed as a mistake,
as they appear to reinforce the notion that operations are still
being compromised by informers. Colombia's ambassador to Bolivia
said in a newspaper interview published in La Paz today that he
believes Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha are hiding in the Bolivian
jungle. But Bolivia's anti-drug force said it has no evidence the
two are in the country, the Reuter news agency reported. Experts
here who asked not to be identified said they believed that Escobar
and Rodriguez Gacha would resist to the end and not be taken alive.
Even if they were captured, the sources said, there are forces here
that would probably prefer the well-connected ring leaders not live
long enough to take the witness stand in the United States in the
event they were extradited. @CAPTION: GONZALO RODRIGUEZ GACHA.
@CAPTION: PABLO ESCOBAR. @CAPTION: An officer walks out of
marble-lined bathroom at drug lord's confiscated home. ART:phm ph 
    REUTER 

APn  11/24 1002  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police and army units raided a drug
traffickers' fortress and apparently came close to capturing the
head of the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel, police said today.
   The newspaper El Tiempo reported that the cartel leader, Pablo
Escobar, fled into the jungle wearing only his pants. Officials did
not confirm this.    El Tiempo said two of Escobar's bodyguards
were killed and 55 people were arrested in the raid, which took
place early Thursday.    Hundreds of troops from government
security forces blocked roads throughout the area, 70 miles west of
Medellin, in an attempt to catch Escobar, El Tiempo said, and
helicopters patrolled the area to prevent him from fleeing by air. 
  Army troops and members of a special police anti-drug unit, not
told where they were going, headed out in helicopters and raided
the ranch in central Colombia, El Tiempo and two other Bogota
dailies, El Espectador and La Prensa, said.
   El Tiempo, quoting officers commanding units of the troops
involved, said Escobar, who is wanted in the United States, ran
into the jungle wearing only pants.
   It quoted police as saying they are sure it was Escobar who fled
because he left behind a shirt with documents in it belonging to
him.    National Police spokesman Octavio Vargas said today that it
is believed Escobar and another Medellin member fled during the
raid. He spoke during an interview with the Colombian radio network
Caracol.    La Prensa, quoting police sources, said Escobar and
another member of the Medellin cartel were at a meeting at the
ranch when the police moved in.    The office of President Virgilio
Barco said in a communique today the raid was on an operations
center of the Medellin cartel but it did not mention Escobar.
   The police seized automobiles, boats, weapons, ammunition and
communications equipment, El Tiempo said.
   Escobar, 39, tops the U.S. Justice Department's list of the 12
most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia.
   The Justice Department says he traffics in cocaine, marijuana,
and possibly heroin and has been indicted five times in the United
States on drug- trafficking, conspiracy, racketeering and
obstruction of justice charges. He is named in indictments in
Florida, Louisiana and Colorado.    A former alternate senator from
Medellin, he faces a 1986 indictment in Colombia for the murder of
a newspaper owner.
   None of the 12 suspects on the Justice Department list has been
captured.
UPn  11/24 1212  Drug lord slips dragnet in skivvies
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Fugitive cocaine czar Pablo Escobar
Gaviria escaped in his underwear into Colombia's northern jungles,
eluding lighting raids by soldiers who killed two of his Medellin
cartel bodyguards and captured 55 suspects, police said Friday.
   Soldiers fanned out Friday in helicopters and speedboats across
Colombia's densely forested Antioquia state, near a ranch allegedly
controlled by Escobar, the reputed head of Colombia's most powerful
cocaine empire, who is wanted for extradition to the United States.
   "Escobar seems to be in the area," Gen. Octavio Vargas, the
National Police operations director, told Bogota's Caracol radio.
"We are going to continue the search as long as necessary."
   Vargas confirmed previous reports that Escobar escaped in only
his underwear as police and army helicopters on Thursday assaulted
the ranch house in the Magdelena River valley where he had been
hiding.
   Medellin drug chieftain Jose Rodriguez Gacha and one of the
drug-trafficking Ochoa brothers also were believed to have escaped
the raids that began Wednesday night and continued Thursday, Vargas
said.
   Two members of Escobar's private army were killed and five
wounded in the fighting, said Brig. Gen. Miguel Antonio Gomez
Padilla, commander of the National Police. There were no reported
security force casualties, he said.    Soldiers arrested 55
bodyguards and reputed associates, whose fierce fighting apparently
allowed Escobar and other cartel leaders to escape, officials said. 
  Escobar's personal documents and a telephone list containing the
names of people closely linked to Escobar were found at the ranch,
police said.    Escobar, Gacha, and the Ochoa brothers -- Jorge
Luis, Juan David and Fabio -- allegedly run the Medellin cocaine
cartel, the country's most prominent drug ring. The Medellin
network reportedly supplies 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in
the United States.
   Escobar, a former congressman who reportedly started his
infamous career as a car thief, is one of the richest men in the
world whose holdings are estimated at $2 billion dollars. He is
wanted on drug trafficking charges by U.S. courts in Florida,
Louisiana and Colorado. Washington has requested his extradition. 
  Apparently awakened by the approaching helicopters, Escobar fled
with 10 bodyguards, leaving behind a shirt with his personal
identification card in the breast pocket, news reports said.
   The force of Colombian soldiers, police and undercover security
agents seized four cartel-controlled ranches and an array of jeeps,
speedboats, weapons and two-way radios, Vargas said.
   The Magdalena River valley, 90 miles north of Bogota, is a drug
cartel stronghold and home of several right-wing paramilitary
groups.    The raids were the closest authorities have come to
capturing a top kingpin since the government launched an all-out
offensive on the drug mafia in August.    Eight Colombians accused
of drug trafficking have been sent to the United States since
President Virgilio Barco re-established extradition on Aug. 18
after a string of assassinations attributed to the cocaine cartels. 
  More than 250 bombs have exploded in the past three months --
killing at least 35 people, wounding hundreds and causing $18
million in damage -- since the drug lords went on a rampage in an
effort to halt the extraditions.    Also Friday, a bomb went off in
southern Bogota, destroying a newly contructed police kiosk,
authorities reported.
   No one was injured in the attack, possibly the work of leftist
guerrilla groups avenging recent army offensives that have left 25
revolutionaries dead, police said.
   Four guerrillas and two soldiers were killed Thursday in battles
between the leftist National Liberation Army and the armed forces
in northeast Colombia, a Defense Ministry source said.
   Fierce fighting between the army and the rebels in Cesar and
Santander states began a week ago and have left 35 people dead,
among them soldiers, policemen and guerrillas.
   The National Liberation Army, which has repeatedly bombed the
oil pipelines in the area, is accused of the October killing of
Monsignor Jesus Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve, the bishop of Arauca
state.
   There are five active leftist rebel armies in Colombia, with
some 10,000 armed members.
APn  11/24 2032  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By TOM WELLS
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Two kingpins of the notorious Medellin
cocaine cartel managed to escape during a police raid on their
operations center in a northern jungle and have eluded air and
ground searches, officials said Friday.    President Virgilio
Barco's office said police killed two cartel gunmen and wounded 10
others in shootouts during the sweep Thursday. Fifty-five people,
including five women, were arrested at the jungle site and three
nearby ranches, said the office communique. It reported no police
casualties.    Police seized 10 automobiles, two boats, weapons,
ammunition and communications equipment during the raid about 110
miles north of Bogota, the communique said.
   The Bogota newspaper El Tiempo said the police operation was
such a surprise that one of the cartel's kingpins, Pablo Escobar,
fled wearing only his pants.    National police Gen. Octavio Vargas
said it was believed that Jorge Luis Ochoa, another major leader of
the Medellin cartel, also was at the operations center when police
attacked.
   He said helicopter gunships and warplanes crisscrossed the area
in case the fugitives tried to escape by air, and ground patrols
were making a methodical search of the jungle district some 70
miles east of Medellin.    Vargas, in a broadcast interview, said
the raid was the result of a tip from a Colombian citizen and
indicated the information was in response to a reward of nearly
$300,000 offered for clues leading to Escobar's arrest.    He said
the raid was carried out by a special anti-drug strike force
created after drug traffickers received advance warnings about
planned actions by regular police units.
   The strike force, backed by warplanes and army troops, was not
told where it was headed or who might be captured, according to
Vargas.    He said a fierce gunbattle developed as helicopters
carrying the strike force landed and the police charged. Escobar,
and perhaps Ochoa, were able to escape as policemen fought with
dozens of gunmen, Vargas said.    He did not say how police knew
that either Escobar or Ochoa were at the center, but El Tiempo
quoted strike force commanders as saying clothing was found with
documents belonging to Escobar.
   It said a shirtless Escobar was seen running into the jungle. A
reporter and photographer from El Tiempo went with the police on
the raid. 
   The presidential communiqhe said cartel's operation center was
in the state of Antioquia, at the junction of the Cocorna and
Magadalena rivers.    If Escobar and Ochoa were at the center or
main ranch, it would have been the closest security forces came to
capturing them since the government declared war on traffickers
more than three months ago.
   Barco made a war declaration hours after traffickers
assassinated a presidential candidate, Sen. Luis Galan, at a Bogota
election rally Aug. 18.
 AROUND THE WORLD
    Colombian Police Search Jungle for Drug Lord
    ---
    From news services DD        11/25/89 SO        WASHINGTON POST
(WP), PAGE 19: A SECTION TX           BOGOTA  Colombia --
    Police and soldiers searched a dense jungle valley yesterday
for accused Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar after  the storming of
four of his estates earlier in the week.
    Police operations director Gen. Octavio Vargas said police  on
Wednesday raided the estates in Cocorna, about 95 miles  northwest
of Bogota, acting on a tip that Escobar and two  other top cartel
leaders were meeting there. Police said they  killed two men and
rounded up Escobar's bodyguards.
    Vargas said in a radio interview that it was a  commando-type
raid with helicopters. He did not specify who  had escaped into the
jungle, but added that Escobar and a  member of the Medellin-based
Ochoa Vasquez family appeared to  be in the zone being searched.
    A police spokesman said the search was led by 300 members  of
an elite police force, backed by at least eight police  helicopters
and army and air force support.
    A presidential press office statement Thursday night said  that
55 people had been arrested in the raid.
    Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha are the main targets  of
the government's anti-narcotics offensive. Rewards  equaling
$230,000 have been posted for information leading to  their arrest.
ESCOBAR HERNANDEZ, Jesus  Emilio.
Early founder of Medellin association of traffickers, along  with 
Fabio  RESTREPO  OCHOA  and  Alfredo GOMEZ LOPEZ. Arrested in
February 1976 in Colombia and soon released.
ESCOBAR ORTEGA, Severo. 
Politician and trafficker from Zipaquira near Bogota.  Known to 
visit  the  RIVERA  GONZALEZ trafficking family in Leticia.
Owned a cocaine refining lab  near  Medina.    Worked with Victor
Eduardo MERA MOSQUERA and Rodolfo and  Javier  OSPINA  BARAYA in
their cocaine-laden flower export operation.  Owns an  estate  in 
Santa Marta and many other properties. His wife Evidaliny Garzon de
ESCOBAR  was involved in trafficking in New York. Escobar and MERA
MOSQUERA were  apprehended  by  the  DEA but were released by
mistake in New York.  They  fled  to Colombia.  Extradition request
for Garzon de ESCOBAR was denied by President Barco. His son was
kidnapped by the M-19 at about the same time as Martha Nieves OCHOA
VASQUEZ.
ESCOBAR, Edgar. 
Edgar  is a trafficker and nephew of Pablo ESCOBAR GAVIRIA. Brother
of Roberto ESCOBAR.
ESCOBAR, Roberto. 
Following the killing of Lara Bonilla, Roberto's house was raided
and a large arsenal of weapons was found. Brother of Edgar and
nephew of Pablo ESCOBAR.
ESCOBAR, Severo.
Son of Severo Escobar Ortega; nephew of Pablo Emilio Escobar
Gaviria. He was arrested in Switzerland in December, 1989.
APn  12/06 1114  Switzerland-Colombia Copyright, 1989. The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   LUGANO, Switzerland (AP) -- A leading drug trafficker in Europe
whose uncle helps run the Medellin cartel in Colombia has been
arrested in a raid on a luxury hotel in southern Switzerland,
police said today.
   A police spokesman who declined to give his name confirmed
reports in the French-language Tribune de Geneve that Severo
"Junior" Escobar, 30, was arrested Nov. 29. The spokesman refused
to give further details.
   A Justice Ministry spokeswoman, Ursula Riedel, said Swiss
authorities had not received any extradition requests for Escobar,
described by news reports as the top Colombian drug trafficker in
Europe and No. 6 in the international cocaine mafia hierarchy. He
is said to be the nephew of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, the reputed head
of Colombia's Medellin cocaine cartel.
   The elder Escobar is one of the top 12 Colombian drug dealers
sought in the United States and has been indicted five times in
Florida and Louisiana and Colorado on a variety of drug charges.
   The younger Escobar's father, also named Severo Sr., was
convicted of drug charges in the United States in 1984 and
sentenced to 30 years in prison.
   Police arrested the younger Escobar and four Colombian
companions in a raid on a luxury hotel in the Swiss-Italian border
town of Lugano, where the group had been staying for two months,
the Tribune de Geneve reported.
   The newspaper said police seized seven pounds of pure cocaine,
which the men allegedly had received as a sample prior to the
planned delivery of 440 pounds of the drug destined for the Swiss
and Italian markets.
   The arrests followed months of investigations in Switzerland,
Spain, the Netherlands and West Germany, the report said.
   The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia said Escobar managed a
smuggling network that brought huge loads of cocaine to supply the
Swiss, German and Dutch markets. The Barcelona-based newspaper
described his capture as a major blow to the Medellin cartel's drug
trafficking network in Europe.
ESCRUCERIA  DELGADO,  Samuel  Alberto.    
Former  senator  from Narino. Convicted in North Carolina in 
November  1987  and  sentenced to 240 years in prison.  His wife
and son are also wanted in the same investigation.  Numerous
Escruceria are traffickers  including  Samuel's  son,  Samuel
ESCRUCERIA MANZ. They operate out of Pasto, and are tied to the
Cali cartel and to Bogota money launderers.  In 1988 at  least 
five  members  of the family ran for political office in Tumaco.
FARAH, Douglas.
Washington Post journalist.
FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia).
Colombian terrorist organization; part of President Barco's attempt
to make peace with insurgent organizations during the 1989 war
against drug traffickers.
APn  11/20 2228  Colombia-Guerrillas
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Nine leftist guerrillas and one soldier
were killed Monday in a battle in southern Colombia, the Defense
Ministry reported.    A ministry communique said army troops fought
members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the
FARC, in Rosa, a town 185 miles south of Bogota. The pro-Soviet
FARC, with an estimated 4,400 members, is the oldest and largest of
Colombia's five guerrilla groups.
   The Defense Ministry said there was no apparent connection
between the fighting Monday and the government's three-month-old
crackdown against Colombian drug traffickers and their hired
hitmen.
FERREIRA CAMARGO, Carlos.   
One  of the 65 "extraditables" who signed the infamous May 1986
letter sent to the GOC.
FINEROCK, Don.
UPI journalist.
FLORES, Ike.
AP (Associated Press) journalist.
FORERO FETECUA, Rafael.  
Bogota councilman, pirate real estate developer, and involved in
the trafficker's  Banco  de los Trabajadores scandal.  Alleged
front man for the RODRIGUEZ OREJUELAS in Bogota.
FREED, Kenneth.
Reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
FULLEDA, Federico.
UPI journalist.
GALAN, Luis Carlos.


Senator, presidential candidate and protege of incumbent president
Virgilio Barco Vargas. He was assassinated, presumably on orders of
Medellin kingpins, on Friday, August 18th, 1989 for his opposition
to them. This assassination, combined with the deportation of
Medellin money launderer Eduardo MARTINEZ ROMERO by Minister of
Justice De Greiff and US President George Bush's war on drugs,
renewed antagonism between the cartels and the Colombian
government.
Colombia Buries Slain Candidate President Blames Consumers of Drugs
10,000 Arrested --- BY Eugene Robinson Washington Post Foreign
Service DD     08/21/89 SO     WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: A
SECTION TX     BOGOTA  Colombia Aug. 20 -- The government hit hard
with raids, searches and nearly 10,000 arrests today in its new war
against Colombia's powerful drug traffickers, while tens of
thousands lined Bogota's streets for the funeral of presidential
candidate Luis Carlos Galan, assassinated Friday night. President
Virgilio Barco blamed the killing on the millions of people who use
drugs and thus sustain the cocaine cartels. Witnesses said the
president's eyes filled with tears as he greeted Galan's family at
the funeral. "Each Colombian or foreigner who consumes drugs should
*remember that he is helping those who assassinated Luis  Carlos
Galan," Barco said. "Colombia is the greatest victim of an
international narcotics organization dedicated to narcotics
trafficking -- a great and powerful organization the likes of which
has never existed in the world." International condemnation of
Galan's slaying included a message from Pope John Paul II, and in
Washington Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said the United States
should consider sending troops, if requested, to help Colombia in
its fight against the drug cartels. None of the major cocaine
traffickers was among the 10,000 who the government announced were
arrested in widespread raids, so Barco's promise to extradite the
drug barons to face trial in the United States was not immediately
put to the test. There was widespread speculation that some of the
cocaine traffickers had fled the country. In the past, some of the
traffickers have moved their headquarters to Panama at moments when
the Colombian government was pursuing them vigorously. Under a
decree by Barco, detainees may be held up to seven days without
charges. Authorities began searches and raids of properties
throughout the country as part of Barco's plan to seize the assets
of drug dealers. Among the sites, according to the Defense
Ministry, were four ranches owned by Gonzalao Rodriguez Gacha,
cited as a member of the powerful Medellin cartel who is believed
to head the group's "enforcement" operations; and several Medellin
buildings and a discotheque owned by Pablo Escobar, reputed leader
of the Medellin cartel and often described as the world's biggest
drug dealer. The offensive was prompted by the killing of Galan as
he took the stage at a campaign rally in a Bogota suburb. Up to
seven men opened fire at the crowded rally, killing Galan and
injuring about a dozen others. Galan, a Liberal Party senator and
an outspoken opponent of the drug traffickers, had been leading in
the opinion polls anticipating next year's presidential election.
Earlier Friday, gunmen had killed the police chief of Antioquia
Province, where Medellin is located. And on Wednesday, killers shot
a judge in Bogota who had refused to clear Escobar and Rodriguez
Gacha of charges stemming from earlier assassinations. The killing
of the judge prompted a nationwide labor strike shutting down the
courts, as judges demanded more effective protection. Colombia's
judges had threatened to resign en masse, but a spokesman said
today that the strike was over and that nine judges would work full
time to bring Galan's killer to justice. "This is not the time for
strikes and resignations," a leader of the judges' group said. It
was not known whether any of the thousands arrested since Saturday
night were suspects in any of the recent slayings. Tens of
thousands of people lined the route of Galan's funeral procession
amid tight security and what witnesses described as an atmosphere
of great tension. A crowd packed the square in front of Bogota's
cathedral to hear Cardinal Mario Rebollo read a message from the
pope which told of his "feelings of pain and condemnation" on
hearing of Galan's "brutal assassination committed by drug
traffickers." Witnesses said that many in the crowd waved white
handkerchiefs, and that some were heard to demand the arrest of
Escobar. Helicopters were seen circling overhead while police and
soldiers with automatic weapons watched from rooftops and the
cathedral's bell towers. The Associated Press added: Galan's death
brought renewed calls for firmer action, including a military
campaign on the drug strongholds. Political support for stronger
measures seemed limited, however, with some political leaders
calling for negotiations with the cartels. "We have tried many
measures without success. Now is the time for dialogue," said Juan
Gomez Martinez, the mayor of Medellin. Since 1981, 220 national
judges and court employees have been killed, mostly by thugs
working for the drug cartels, according to the association of
Judicial System Employees, the court workers' union.
@CAPTION:Massive crowd accompanies coffin of assassinated
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, borne for burial in
Bogota.
   Gunmen Took Part of Future In Colombia Galan's Assassination
Tests Political System --- BY Eugene Robinson Washington Post
Foreign Service DD     08/28/89 SO     WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE
20: A SECTION TX     BOGOTA  Colombia Aug. 27 -- It was just after
8 p.m. when Luis Carlos Galan arrived in Soacha, a working-class
town just outside Bogota, for a campaign rally. A multitude waited
with banners and balloons, cheering the front-running presidential
candidate as his entourage arrived. The event was ready to begin;
Galan took the stage. Minutes later, Galan lay mortally wounded. As
his life bled out of him, so did hope and faith in this nation's
political system hemorrhage from millions of Colombians for whom
Galan was a special champion, a point of light in the vast
darkness. Even in a country sadly accustomed to violence and sudden
death, the Aug. 18 assassination of Galan was a stunning blow,
enough to impel an all-out new offensive against the drug
traffickers believed to have ordered his murder. Colombians draw
parallels with the 1968 killing of Robert F. Kennedy, then a U.S.
presidential candidate. Both assassinations are seen as the
snuffing out of great promise just at the moment when it was about
to be fulfilled. Said former president Misael Pastrana, who is from
a rival party: "They killed not just the present, but the future as
well." The day after the killing, the headline in one Bogota
newspaper read: "A hope is assassinated." Another daily lamented:
"The country is disintegrating." According to public opinion polls,
Galan led all other contenders and was likely to be chosen
Colombia's president in elections next year. He was a member of the
Liberal Party of President Virgilio Barco but came from a different
faction previously known as the "New Liberalism." Since Galan's
death, the faction has been called simply "Galanism." The movement,
founded in 1980, sought to open the tradition-bound party to wider
participation and was especially popular among younger voters.
Galan is the second of the four founders of the "New Liberalism" to
be assassinated. Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was serving as justice
minister when he was murdered in 1984, triggering a crackdown
similar to that now under way against the cocaine underworld.
Colombia has long been governed by the Liberal and Conservative
parties, both of which are firmly controlled by a set of old
established, wealthy families known here as "the oligarchy." The
closed nature of this political and social elite is generally
considered one of the reasons why Colombia is beset by a half-dozen
groups of leftist guerrillas, which provide an outlet for the
country's impoverished majority that has not existed in the
legitimate political system. Because Galan's movement pledged to
open up the system, some observers see a political motivation in
his killing. "The assassination of Galan is part of the plan by the
extreme right to use violence, terror and murder to impede the
democratic changes that the country so urgently needs," said
Gustavo Osorio, vice president of the central labor federation. A
former assistant attorney general, who asked not to be named, said
he even doubted that Galan's killing was the work of the drug
traffickers. "Look at who had the most to gain," the source said.
"It was the right wing that was most interested in Galan's death."
But most signs do point to involvement by the traffickers in the
assassination. Galan was an outspoken opponent of the drug trade
and was considered likely to fight the traffickers strenuously if
he reached the presidency. Moreover, the traffickers have formed
alliances with the extreme right wing, and the traffickers'
squadrons of trained killers are accused of serving as an
"enforcement" arm for the right wing in a series of rural massacres
over the past few years. Born in 1943, Galan studied law and began
his career as a journalist for Bogota's leading daily, El Tiempo,
in 1965. He became known for his incisive editorials and was seen
as a young man who would eventually leave his mark. When he was 27,
he went to interview Misael Pastrana, who had just been elected
president. The story goes that Pastrana told him to stop taking
notes, since he would never get to publish the article he was
preparing. When Galan asked why, Pastrana responded, "Because you
will be the new minister of education." His term as minister is not
remembered as a great success, but he went on to become ambassador
to Rome and in 1978 was elected to the Senate for the first time.
In 1980, he helped found the New Liberalism, and over the years, he
became the group's undisputed leader. Galan was said to dislike
wearing the bulletproof vest that is standard garb for Colombian
political figures, but before he went to the rally in Soacha he put
it on. The bullets that killed him entered below the vest and
ripped through his abdomen. He was also accompanied at the rally by
a security detail of nearly 20 armed guards. The assassins were
waiting, perhaps hiding, behind the many placards that faced the
stage. Police have arrested 13 people on suspicion of being
involved in the slaying, and it is a measure of the horror
Colombians felt at the killing that a dozen witnesses have
identified several of the suspects as having been present.
Potential witnesses put themselves in grave danger by pointing out
suspects in slayings that may be connected with the powerful drug
cartels. Galan is survived by his wife and his three sons, one of
whom, Juan Manuel Galan, delivered a moving eulogy at Galan's
funeral. "How sad it is to see a man like my father live, fight and
die for Colombia without achieving his dream of seeing his country
in peace," the 18-year-old Galan said. "I believe his sacrifice was
not in vain." *@CAPTION:Mourners visit slain candidate Luis Carlos
Galan's grave in Bogota yesterday. ART:ph  afp 
The Los Angeles Times, Sunday, September 4, 1989; 2 Admit Killing
Galan, Bogota General Says Associated Press:
BOGOTA, Colombia-Two captured men havbe confessed to killing a
popular presidential candidate, the army says, and a congressional
leader says he was contacted by Colombia's two most notorious drug
lords with a new offer to negotiate.
Bogota's half a dozen daily newspapers quoted an army general
Saturday as saying the army now knows who hired the alledged
assassins of Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, whose Aug. 18 killing led the
government to declare war on drug traffickers.
But Gen. Ramon Niebles did not disclose who ordered the killing,
the newspapers said. Niebles made the statement Friday at a news
conference.
The general was quoted as saying that the two men who confessed to
killing Galan were part of a band called the Blackies.
The two men were captured Thursday in a Bogota house where the army
found weapons, ammunition and 220 pounds of dynamite, the general
said.
Twice before, police have said they captured Galan's killers-once
five men, and once 11 men. Both times the suspects were released
after a few days.
Meanwhile, the president of Colombia's House of Representatives,
Norberto Morales, told a news conference in Medellin that he was
telephoned by Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, kingpins
of the infamous Medellin cartel.
Morales said Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha offered to invest millions
of dollars in Colombian industry if a truce is reached. He said he
passed the information along to President Virgilio Barco Vargas,
who has refused to conduct negotiations with the traffickers.
Candlelight Marks Tribute To Slain Colombian Leader Supporters
Gather at Lafayette Square --- BY Elizabeth Aoki Washington Post
Staff Writer DD     09/07/89 SO     WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 27:
A SECTION TX
     Several hundred members of the area's Colombian community
gathered in Lafayette Square last night for a candlelight *vigil in
memory of Luis Carlos Galan, the slain candidate for the Colombian
presidency, and to show support for the push against that nation's
drug lords. Galan's brother, Alberto, and sister, Helena, delivered
a brief prayer during the vigil, and read aloud several dozen names
of public figures in Colombia who have been assassinated by drug
traffickers. The solemn crowd, whose members held lighted candles
as they stood across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, were
addressed by Del. Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.) and Rep. Charles B.
Rangel (D-N.Y.), both of whom called for greater efforts to combat
the cocaine trade. "These cartels are the greatest threat to
international order since Nazi Germany," Fauntroy said. "I want to
encourage you to keep up this effort." Added Rangel: "Once again,
America is at war. But the people in the battle lines and at the
trenches are in your beloved country Colombia. And you do not stand
alone." Letters from President Bush and the Colombian ambassador to
the United States, Victor Mosquera Chaux, were read aloud in
Spanish and English by the vigil's organizers. "We applaud the
courageous actions of President {Virgilio} Barco and everyone else
who stands up to these criminals who undermine the foundations of
our society," Bush wrote. "Your example will serve as our guide."
The gathering was organized by the Young Americans and Colombians
Against Narcotics, a group with about 200 supporters in the
Washington area. In an interview before the vigil, Alberto Galan
said the effort was intended "to involve the North American society
and Colombians here to show their solidarity with Colombia." "Our
family has gathered and decided to keep working for the ideas that
Luis Carlos had," he said. "He was deeply against violence because
he understood the never-ending cycle *of violence and more
violence." Luis Carlos Galan was shot to death at a campaign
appearance in Soacha, Colombia, on Aug. 18. "There are many people
at risk in Colombia," Alberto Galan said. "That is a sacrifice that
this society underestimates and does not recognize -- not only with
words, but facts and actions." He called for stronger efforts by
the governments of the United States and Colombia to fight the drug
cartels, including making it more difficult for drug dealers to
invest in the United States. Galan remembered his brother as an
honest man who had a good chance of being elected president. Now
that he is dead, he said, "Colombia will have to search for new
leaders. And that will not be so easy." 
GARLAND, Ed
U.S. (Atlanta based?) attorney for accused Medellin money launderer
Eduardo Martinez Romero.
GASSER, Jose Roberto.
Bolivian landowner and coca producer. Associated with Roberto
SUAREZ GOMEZ.
GAVIRIA RIVERO, Gustavo.
AKA  Alvaro ESCOBAR, is cousin of Pablo ESCOBAR, and works closely
with that leader,  and, apparently, with Joaquin BUILES.  He acts
as middleman in coca base shipments between Peru, Bolivia and
Colombia.


GAVIRIA, Jose Arturo.
Attorney for Martha Maria Upegui de Uribe, Pablo Escobar and 
Gustavo  Gaviria. It is possible that he is related to the last
two.GETLER, Michael
Washington Post journalist.GIMBERNAT ORDEIG, Enrique.
Madrid lawyer; represented Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ there in 1984.
GIRALDO SOTO, Hernando.    
Boyhood friend of Gilberto RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA. Apparently first
member of Cali cartel  to  set up an organization in the USA.
Ran the distribution network  in  New  York  until  arrested,
whereupon he was replaced by Jose SANTACRUZ LONDONO.  In  Colombia
in 1986, he was acquitted of drug trafficking charges along with
RODRIGUEZ and SANTACRUZ.
GOMEZ GUTIERREZ, Carlos Tulio.
Cali trafficker.  While held for trial in Caldas, and awaiting
possible  extradition  to  USA on trafficking charges, he
was one of 65 traffickers who  offered  in  May  1986, in a letter
sent to the GOC, to pay  the  foreign  debt,  repatriate  their 
capital and close cocaine laboratories in exchange for no
extradition to the USA and prosecution only in Colombia.  Based on
a  Northern  California 1983 indictment, he was extradited to the
USA in May 1987.
GOMEZ  LOPEZ,  Alfredo. 
Considered  the  "padrino" of Medellin cocaine traffickers. Formed
the first association  with Jesus Emilio ESCOBAR HERNANDEZ and
Fabio RESTREPO  OCHOA.    Cooperated  with  the  Boyaca emerald
smugglers. Worked with Luis Carlos CAVIRIA OCHOA  in  New  York and
his wife Martha Ligia CARDONA, who was a  money  launderer.   
Forced  to flee Medellin in mid-1976 after which a new struggle for
control of the Medellin group occurred.
GOMEZ VAN GRIECKEN, Jorge  Dario  "Pocholo" and Lucas.  
Jorge arrested in February 1983, while an alternate Congressman,
when 25 kilos of HCL were found on his ranch.  He  was  shot  in 
the  leg  while shooting it out with police.
Lucas is wanted in the US and though briefly jailed in Bogota, was
soon freed.
Colombian President Betancur would extradite neither to the USA. 
The Gomez V. brothers began with marijuana and  moved  into 
cocaine.   The Gomez are hotel owners in Barranquilla.  In Guajira
they worked with major trafficker Emiro de Jesus MEJIA ROMERO.  In
May  1984,  immediately following the death of Justice Minister
Rodrigo Lara, warrants for the arrest of MEJIA ROMERO and Lucas
GOMEZ VAN BREIKEN.  President Betancur had  previously freed Lucas
in December 1983, in spite of a request for extradition from the
USA.
GOMEZ ZAPATA,  Carlos  Humberto.
Once called Colombia's most important Methaqualone dealer with
production plants in Pereira and Cali.  The US sought his
extradition in 1985,  while  he  was  held  by Colombian
authorities.  His cousin is Cesar GAVIRIA TRUJILLO, former Minister
of Government.
GONZALEZ  RUIZ,  Wilfredo  "Willi".
Purchases  precursors  and has many "chemist" contracts in Ecuador. 
Has spent many years in Brazil and Paraguay.
GUARNIZO, Eduardo.    
Owner  of  planes  shipping  HCL  to the USA, and a warrant for
arrest was issued in Colombia  in  1979 when 630 kilos of HCL were
seized in Turbo.
GUGLIOTTA, Guy.
Co-author of Kings of Cocaine.
GUILLOT LARA, Jaime.
Narcotics trafficker and M-19 revolutionary; based in Cali, and
known to have many associates in narcotics, revolutionary and
terrorist circles.
GUIZADO, Ivan Dario.
Gunman in the assassination of LARA BONILLA.
HAYS, Monte.
Associated Press (AP) journalist.
HEDGES, Michael.

Reporter for the Washington Times.
HERRERA ZULETA,  Benjamin.  
Called  the  "black  father of cocaine".  A veteran trafficker who
worked in  both  Cali  and, more recently, in Medellin.
Jailed in the USA after trafficking cocaine  in the late 1970s. 
Released, and said to have opened trafficking  routes  into  the
USA from the southern cone. Apparently wanted by the Government  of 
Argentina.    Said to be working with Medellin operator Martha
Maria Upegui de  URIBE, other reports indicate he has disappeared.
HUGHES, Candice.
Associated Press journalist.
HURTADO, Rendon.
Medellin trafficker; killed with Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha in
December, 1989.
UPn  12/19 1553  Police: Slain `bodyguard' was a drug cartel leader
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- A man killed last week at the side of
drug kingpin Jose Rodriguez Gacha has been identified as one of the
secondary leaders of the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel, police
said Tuesday.
   Authorities initially thought the man was one of the bodyguards
slain during a gun battle with police. But Luz Mary Celades, the
wife of Rodriguez Gacha, identified the body as that of Gilberto
Rendon Hurtado, the alleged No. 8 man in the Medellin cartel.
   Rendon Hurtado was wanted for extradition to the United States,
but he was not on the so-called dirty dozen list of top drug
traffickers wanted by the U.S. government.
   Five prisoners died in a battle at a Bogota prison Tuesday in
what appears to have been a clash between emerald smugglers in the
wake of Rodriguez Gacha's death.
   The prisoners were stabbed and bludgeoned to death and two
others were wounded in Modelo Prison in what authorities said they
believed was a confronation between bands formerly run by Rodriguez
Gacha and emerald king Victor Carranza, a prison official said.
   U.S. and Colombian officials had expected a struggle over the
drug baron's immense fortune and share in the multibillion dollar
drug and emerald trades.
   Rodriguez Gacha, the No. 2 man in the Medellin ring, and six
others were killed in a gun battle with police Friday when they
tried to shoot their way out of a police ambush on a ranch in
northern Colombia. Rodriguez Gacha, his son Freddy Rodriguez
Celades, Rendon Hurtado and four bodyguards were killed in the
shootout.
   Authorities continued to search Tuesday for some 30 gunmen who
had been protecting Rodriguez Gacha last week. Police said all was
quiet in Pacho, 19 miles north of the capital, where Rodriguez
Gacha and his son Freddy were buried Sunday in a small ceremony.
   The slaying of Rodriguez Gacha was the first major victory for
the government in its battle against the druglords. President
Virgilio Barco launched an all-out offensive on the cocaine cartels
in August following a string of drug-related assassinations.
   Argentina Tuesday became the latest country to provide
assistance to the Colombian government in its war against the
cocaine cartels. Argentine Vice President Eduardo Alberto Duhalde
officially handed over three Argentine-made Pucara warplanes to
Barco in a ceremony at Catam military airport in Bogota.
   Police sources said helicopters donated by friendly countries
were used in the effort to track down Rodriguez Gacha last week.
   Police spotted Rodriguez Gacha in the port city of Cartagena and
followed the fleeing drug lord to the small ranch in Tulu, where he
made his last stand.
   Rodriguez Gacha had arranged a meeting with Medellin cartel
chief Pablo Escobar near Cartagena, possibly to plot a terrorist
attack on President Bush at the Feb. 15 Andean drug summit in the
Caribbean resort city, unconfirmed news reports said Monday.
   The drug lords were planning to meet in Turbaco, 6 miles south
of Cartagena, but the scheme fell apart when police launched their
manhunt on Rodriguez Gacha, La Prensa newspaper reported Monday
without citing a source.
   Bush is scheduled to meet with the presidents of Colombia, Peru,
Bolivia and representatives from 20 countries Feb. 15 to put
together an international drug war strategy.
   Two weeks ago, a team of U.S. security experts visited Cartagena
to coordinate plans with Colombian authorities, and last week the
assistant secretary of state for Latin America, Bernard Aronson,
came to Bogota to finalize details for Bush's visit.
   The U.S. official who met reporters Monday said despite security
arrangements, Bush's visit is "not without its concerns."
   Members of Congress have warned the president not to travel to
violence-torn Colombia, where drug cartel terrorists have set off
more than 260 bombs in the past four months, killing close to 200
people.
   The official also insisted the drug summit was not merely a
photo opportunity for Bush, and that much had been accomplished
during the preparations for the meeting.
   Escobar, the most wanted man in Colombia, is said to be
somewhere in northern Colombia and police claim to be closing in on
him.
   Police nearly captured Escobar last month when he was spotted on
a ranch in Antioquia state in jungles north of Bogota, but he
managed to escape in his shorts while armed thugs battled
authorities.
   Escobar, who was a congressman from 1982 to 1986, is wanted for
drug trafficking in Florida, Louisiana and Colorado, and tops the
U.S. list of the 12 most-wanted cocaine czars.
   Police received dozens of prank calls this weekend warning of
terrorist bomb attacks to avenge Rodriguez Gacha's death. 
 
 ISIKOFF, Michael.
Washington Post journalist.
KATZENBACH, John.
Writer for the Washington Post.KLEIN, Yair.


Israeli mercenary; allegedly provided training and services to the
Medellin cartel.
Bogota Security Alleges Mercenary Aid to Cartels    ---
BY Eugene Robinson
Washington Post Foreign Service
08/29/89
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: A SECTION TX BOGOTA  Colombia  Aug.
28 --
   At least five Israeli and 11 British mercenaries helped train
teams of assassins for Colombian cocaine traffickers and their
right-wing allies, according to a confidential report by the
Colombian security forces.    Accused drug barons such as Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar, said to be leaders of the
Medellin cocaine cartel, sent trainees to be instructed at the
remote training camps between December 1987 and May 1988, according
to the report by Colombia's Administrative Security Department, an
umbrella security and intelligence-gathering agency known by its
Spanish initials, DAS.
   The mercenaries referred to in the report are believed to have
left the country after completing their stints as instructors. A
spokesman for the government said last week that authorities have
no specific information indicating that any mercenaries are
currently in the country, and there have been no reports of any
being arrested in the government's current campaign against the
drug cartels.    The report, a copy of which was made available
here, sheds light on the murky relationships between major drug
traffickers and right-wing paramilitary "self-defense" groups in
the countryside, and also on the gestation of the private armies of
sicarios, or assassins, who carry out the drug cartels' killings.
   According to the report, "the drug traffickers Gonzalo Rodriguez
Gacha (El Mexicano) and Henry de Jesus Perez (Don Dario) contracted
for the services of foreign mercenaries to train personnel at the
schools for assassins in the Magdalena Medio," an area in the north
that the cocaine cartels, right-wing groups and guerrilla forces
have turned into one of Colombia's most violent regions.
   A group of five Israeli nationals led a course at a training
camp called "50" near Puerto Boyaca, the report states. First names
are given for four of the trainers but there was no other
identification.
   However, Yair Klein, a retired Israeli lieutenant colonel now in
Israel, acknowledged having led a team of instructors in Puerto
Boyaca in early 1988. He has said he was there only to help
ranchers learn to defend themselves against guerrilla attacks, and
had no involvement with drug traffickers.    {In Jerusalem, the
Associated Press reported, Israeli police questioned Klein and
Reserve Lt. Col. Amatzia Shueli. Israel Radio said the session
lasted nine hours and was followed by collection of their passports
and confiscation of documents at Klein's farm. Foreign Minister
Moshe Arens said, "We will do everything in our power to enforce
the law and prevent all aid by Israelis to the drug cartel."}   
The DAS report states that the ranchers' group by that time had
become firmly linked to drug traffickers. Suspected cartel leaders,
notably Rodriguez Gacha, have bought millions of acres of ranchland
in areas like the Magdalena Medio in recent years. As major
landowners, they have forged alliances with established ranchers
against the  leftist guerrilla groups that are active in those
remote regions.     Some 50 students participated in that course,
all of them sent by various drug-trafficking organizations,
according to the report. That session was abbreviated, the report
states, because the Israeli instructors said they were scheduled to
go "to Honduras and Costa Rica to give training to the Nicaraguan
contras."
   The Israelis brought sophisticated devices like night-vision
equipment, infrared flashlights and telescopic sights, the report
says.
   In another training session, 11 British nationals led a similar
course, according to the report. This group was said to be led by
a "robust" retired colonel in his forties named "Peter."
   This course -- begun at the same training center but interrupted
by a visit from the antinarcotics police and subsequently moved to
another site -- consisted of instruction in the use of grenades and
plastic explosives, camouflage techniques and other subject matter,
the report notes, adding that the British instructors were
liberally tattooed with "butterflies, diamonds, anchors, daggers,
birds and airplanes on their chests, arms and shoulders."    The
network of "schools" and other facilities was linked by a radio
communications system, according to the report. The overall
infrastructure, also used in the drug business, included several
airplanes, among them a DC-3; some 120 vehicles, including
four-wheel-drive trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, tractors and
about a dozen boats.    The history of training operations like
those described in the report begins nearly a decade ago, when
right-wing rural interests began organizing "self-defense" brigades
to combat the half-dozen guerrilla armies active in the
countryside.    Drug traffickers' involvement is said to have begun
in 1981, when a female member of the Ochoa clan -- which helped
found the Medellin cocaine cartel -- was kidnapped by the M-19
guerrilla group. The drug traffickers formed a group called Death
to Kidnappers and began an escalating war against the guerrillas.
   The conflict intensified as suspected drug kingpins diversified
into ranching and became involved in the "self-defense" brigades
put together by their new neighbors.    "It is clear that behind
the groups that at first were formed for 'self-defense' now lies .
. . drug trafficking," the DAS report states.
   The men taught in the training centers are believed responsible
for massacres in rural villages and assassinations of left-leaning
politicians that have left hundreds dead over the last few years.
The centers' graduates also are said to include enforcers for the
drug cartels.
The New York Times, Friday September 1, 1989; Israeli Reservist
Denies Training Drug Dealers by Joel Brinkley, The New York Times:
Tel Aviv, Aug. 31-Yair Klein, an Israeli mercenary, is at the
center of an international clamor.
He is under investigation by the Israeli and Colombian governments
because of reports that men he trained, saying he believed they
were cattle ranchers, assassinated Senator Luis Carlos Galan, the
leading candidate for president of Colombia and a campaigner
against drug trafficking.
Mr. Galan's death this month set off the war between the Colombian
government and the cocaine rings that carried out the
assassination.
In a two-hour interview today in his comfortable but something less
than plush office suite on a side street in Tel Aviv, Mr. Klein
said: It's possible that one of the people in our course killed
Galan. But I say again, we worked with farmers. If after we left,
one of them worked with drug dealers, we couldn't know.
Israel's Police Department announced today that it is going to end
its investigation of Mr. Klein and his company, Spearhead, Inc.,
within a week, unless the Colombian government supplies evidence
for the case that Israel has requested.
Examining only the limited evidence available here, Yehousha Caspi,
the chief police investigator, said this afternoon that Israel has
no proof that Mr. Klein or other Israeli mercenaries trained drug
traffickers' hit squads.
Mr. Klein was clearly cheered by the police announcement, but it
was not an unequivocal absolution. Though he did not name names,
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin was clearly talking about Mr. Klein
and his company on Wednesday night when he said one or two Israeli
companies either worked without permission of the Defense Ministry 
or went beyond the permission.
Mr. Klein acknowledged that a promotional tape his company made in
Colombia, showing his students armed with automatic rifles storming
a building, also shows people whom Colombian officials have
identified as important members of the Medellin cartel. These
people were visitors from the outside I didn't know, Mr. Klein
said.
The tape was shown on Colombian and American television, and Mr.
Klein's recorded voice on it, speaking in Hebrew, set off the
investigation and public furor here that has not been abated. 
This afternoon the Defense Ministry announced that it had ordered
the families of about 40 Israelis who live in Colombia to leave the
country, apparently out of fear of retaliation against Israelis
because of the reported activities of Mr. Klein and others.
I did not work with drug dealers, he said with a firm voice and a
shake of the head. If drug dealers got into the group we worked
with, one or two of them, then God only knows. Everyone's talking,
everyone knows. But I have receipts from the Colombian security
services to validate what I'm saying.
Asked to produce the receipt, he said he left it in Colombia.
Mr. Klein, a 46-year old former army officer who remains a colonel
in the Army reserves, opened his foreign military training business
10 years ago and got his first contracts during the Lebanon war. He
said he sold uniforms and other equipment, not including weapons,
to the Christian Phalangist militia in Beirut in 1983.
Mr. Klein said, My character is to enter areas where other sales
agents are not allowed.
From there Mr. Klein said he sold equipment to the South Lebanon
Army, Israel's ally, in the period before the Israeli government
began supplying the army itself.
He was not specific about the range of his activities in the
following months and years, perhaps because business was poor. But
Mr. Klein and his wife also owned a restaurant and a gas station in
Israel that may have kept them busy.
He said he first heard about the need for military trainers in
Colombia from a friend and business associate in Israel, and he
traveled to Colombia in early 1988.
He was refused the required government permit for military
training, both he and the Defense Ministry say. But Mr. Klein
asserts that since he was training civilians, a permit was not
needed. The ministry is likely to take issue with that.
His initial contact was with Colombian government officials, he
said, but soon he was deep in the jungle training cattle ranchers
to fight the M-19 guerillas and other leftist rebels.
We had three-month training courses, he said, and for those the
ranchers came armed with M-16 and Uzi automatic rifles, grenades,
explosives and an assortment of other weapons. Mr. Klein said he
did not know where the weapons came from and did not ask.
He displayed snapshots of his students, about 30 troops wearing
uniforms  of blue-jean shirt and pants. Every one of them also wore
blue caps with Caterpillar logos. Many of them had bullets still in
them and other wounds, left over from battles with the guerrillas,
he said.
Earlier this year, he said, stories began appearing in the
Colombian press saying people he had trained had been involved in
the assassinations of some labor union officers. The Colombian
government complained to the Israeli ambassador, and then he was
officially notified by the Israeli government that he was in
violation of the law by working without a permit and should desist
immediately.
Our answer was that out work was over, and that we had left
Colombia, he said. I got a warning, but at that time I was already
out.
From it all, Mr. Klein says Spearhead earned $20,000. He scoffs at
the figure $800,000, widely reported in the Israeli press as his
pay.
Mr. Klein's story has brought both support and skepticism from
different public officials.
Ariel Sharon, who suggests military solutions to many of Israel's
problems, said today that Mr. Klein and others have already been
judged, adding: It's simply unbelievable that. With out own hands
we are making ourselves responsible for the subject of drugs in
Colombia.
In response to that, Yossi Sarid,  leftist member of Parliament,
said, A bluffer like Klein needs a lot of defending because his
versions of events concerning banana growers is itself a banana
version-here and there soft, here and there rotten.
Mr. Klein said: I am adventurous. Not many people have the
character to go into the jungle and with guerrillas all around that
can attack the camps
I have no doubt that the large part of the people we taught were
not drug dealers. At the same time, he acknowledged, Yes, there was
naivete in this, But it's also naive to think there is justice in
the world.
Israeli 'Consultants' Should Be More Careful
    ---
BY Dan Raviv
AND   Yossi Melman
09/03/89
 WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 01: OUTLOOK
TX ONE UNLIKELY VICTIM of the Colombia drug wars is the fraternity
of Israeli security consultants. NBC News recently disclosed the
role of an Israeli reserve officer named Yair Klein in training
gunmen in the Colombian hills, allegedly for wealthy drug barons.
But that's just one example of an Israeli network that today
stretches around the globe.    Israeli consultants -- most of them
vet-erans of elite army commando units or former intelligence
officers -- are active in at least a dozen countries around the
world. They are selling expertise and Israeli weapons to
governments, corporations and to other private groups with more
dubious motives. Business has been good in Africa for over two
decades, and in Latin America it only gets better -- a boom market
apparently financed in part by drug profits.
   Back home in Israel, there is occasional criticism in the press.
But until the recent uproar over the Colombian caper, there has
never been a hint that the Israeli authorities wanted to stop the
lucrative export of weapons and know-how. "It is not pleasant to
hear that there are Israelis dealing in ugly things," says Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir, but "the State of Israel cannot be
responsible for them."    Shamir, however, knows as well as anyone
that military sales abroad are considered a vital national interest
for Israel. They are a useful means of projecting influence
overseas, with defense assistance the entrance ticket for Israeli
diplomats and spies who would otherwise be unwelcome in many Third
World nations. Senior officers -- in armies ranging from the
Iranian to the Kenyan -- who once visited Israel on training
courses have proved later to be useful contacts.
   Arms exports are also an obvious source of foreign currency,
needed by Israel's faltering economy. But there is a more basic
business logic. To have its own defense industry -- a requirement
if Israel is to avoidtotal dependence on the kindness of other
nations -- it must achieve economies of scale. The Israeli arms
industry must manufacture far more guns, bullets, shells, uniforms,
tanks and radios than Israel itself can use. And that means
exports.
   Because these arms-export deals usually have to be secret, the
Israeli intelligence community has an active hand in the
transactions. The Mossad, the foreign espionage agency where Shamir
himself was a senior operative from 1955 to 1965, often instructs
its spies to act as salesmen and shipping agents for defense
exports. Officers of Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, have
also been sent abroad as counterterrorism advisers -- who spread
the word about the excellence of Israeli weapons, eavesdropping
devices and other electronic gear.
   The guns and other material become part of a package deal: Good
advice from Israeli consultants goes hand-in-hand with
battle-proved weapons. Burma and Ghana were the first countries to
do this sort of defense-related business with Israel, way back in
1957.
   The process used to be much better controlled by government
authorities than it is now. Early weapons exports were handled
directly by a little known agency called Sibat, a Hebrew acronym
for Siyua Bitchoni, or "Security Assistance." It was set up within
the defense ministry in the early 1960s to coordinate arms sales
after embarrassing reports that Uzi submachine guns had been sold
to South Africa without clear authorization.
   As the list of Israel's customers expanded to include countries
that would never wish to admit publicly that they did business with
the Jewish state, Sibat begin to employ middlemen who earned
commissions on what were truly government-to-government
transactions. These sales agents, sometimes Israelis and sometimes
not, were mainly used to cover-up the origin of the arms. This
second phase of activity was still made up of fully authorized
sales, and until the 1973 Yom Kippur War they totalled about $50
million a year.
   A third phase began after the 1973 war. Having been caught by
surprise by Egypt and Syria, the Israelis vowed to be better armed
and more prepared in every sense. An export drive would support an
enlarged defense industry. More middlemen were employed, and they
were told they could be more aggressive in knocking on foreign
doors and opening them for Sibat and the growing
military-industrial complex. Within 15 years, Israel's arms exports
grew to almost $1.5 billion a year.
   These were the golden years for Yaakov Nimrodi, a veteran Mossad
operative in Iran who returned there to sell arms and other Israeli
products in what turned out to be the final years of the shah's
rule. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, there were small and
sporadic sales of military equipment to Iran, but Israel was
anxious to find another big buyer for its products.
   The Israelis discovered China, thanks to an explorer named Shaul
Eisenberg, who is reputed to be Israel's wealthiest businessman. He
had lived in Japan and developed excellent contacts in Asia, and in
the late 1970s he paved a pathway to Beijing for Israeli military
exports. Eisenberg's most formidable tool was his private jet; he
could ignore the official hostility between the two nations and fly
high-level Israelis directly to China. He made dozens of trips,
carrying Sibat officials, army advisers, financiers and military
salesmen for what the Israelis described as their "toughest
negotiations ever." The hard bargaining produced sales to China
estimated at almost $3 billion during the 1980s.    With rising
exports, the Israeli arms industry reached its fourth phase.
Israeli middlemen started not just knocking on doors, but actively
pulling and dragging their government into doorways which they
claimed to have opened. Many Israelis thought there had been a
worrisome change; the middleman were now attempting to dictate
Israeli foreign policy, based on their own quest for financial
gain. The most obvious example is the push by Nimrodi for Israel
(and later the United States) to sell missiles and other advanced
weapons to Iran, which helped bring on the Iran-Contra mess in
1986.
   Some Israelis worry that personal profits and national interests
have been blurred beyond recognition. There is an entire new class
of army and intelligence veterans who spend their time persuading
their own country to sell while convincing foreigners to buy. This
class of "formers," while lamenting the passage of their good old
days in active service, complain when they are pressed to retire in
their 40s with no alternative job training and a pension check of
barely $1,000 a month.
   "Israel turns us into valuable experts," says a Mossad veteran,
"but then there is nothing for a man who's had responsibility or
commanded a battalion to do but start a new career as assistant
manager of a factory. The foreigners who want us offer as much as
$100,000 a year plus bonuses and travel expenses. There are few
Israelis who would say no."    To reassert some control, the
Israeli authorities have on occasion used "privateers" as
surrogates in foreign projects. Just last year the chief
administrator of the foreign ministry, General Avraham Tamir, was
in tiny Papua New Guinea when the island nation's government asked
for Israeli assistance in setting up a security service modeled on
the Mossad. Tamir returned home and urged the genuine Mossad to
accept the invitation, but agency chief Nahum Admoni felt the
Pacific was too far to go for such a minute political gain.
   The Mossad suggested instead that some of its former operatives
be sent to train the Papua New Guineans on a semi-official basis.
The "formers" would be well paid; everyone would be happy. But
after further bureaucratic wrangling in Tel Aviv, the deal fell
through.    Today, some 800 Israeli companies hold permits from the
defense ministry to export military equipment and know-how. In the
lucrative Latin American market, two former Mossad agents have been
named in Israeli newspapers as especially active: Michael Harari
and Rafi Eitan.
   Harari was leader of the Mossad "hit teams" which exacted
revenge on Palestinian terrorists by killing over a dozen PLO
operatives in Europe after the massacre of Israeli athletes at the
Munich Olympics in 1972. Identified in various non-fiction
thrillers only as "Mike," Harari was involved in the embarrassment
of mistakenly shooting an innocent Arab in Lillehammer, Norway, in
1973, followed immediately by the arrest of half a dozen members of
the Mossad team. Harari's anonymity ended when Panamanian, Israeli
and American sources named him as security adviser and personal
friend of General Manuel Noriega.
   Rafi Eitan, who spent even longer in the shadows of Israeli
intelligence, came under the spotlight of scandal in late 1985,
when he was identified as the "handler" of Jonathan Jay Pollard,
the first American citizen prosecuted for spying on behalf of
Israel. Eitan's old friend Ariel Sharon, a controversial general
who is now minister for trade and industry, rescued Eitan by
appointing him chairman of Israel Chemicals, the country's largest
state-owned enterprise. But the Israeli press reported last week
that the chemicals job is merely part-time employment, which has
left Eitan enough free time to serve as "national security adviser
to Colombia's president," Virgilio Barco Vargas.    It has all been
embarrassing for Israel, and politicians last month for the first
time began urging stern measures to control the privateers who are
giving the country a bad name. Sibat, the official export agency,
claimed early this year that it was strengthening its oversight
system to require anyone selling Israeli military equipment to
first seek permission for every nut, bolt and bullet. A long
application has to be filled out, followed by a personal interview
in Tel Aviv. (Security consultants such as Klein say they thought
they needed permission only to sell arms -- not expertise.
Moreover, says Klein, he thought he was training farmers in
Colombia, not drug lords.)
   But loopholes are sure to be found, because Israel's basic
desire -- and economic need -- is to continue exporting arms. The
challenge now is to control the process, while also riding herd on
the "formers" and other privateers and mercenaries who apparently
conclude that once their military careers are over in Israel they
might as well seek action and a lucrative income abroad.
   "No matter where they live, they are part of us," a former
Israeli diplomat says. "If they're involved with some ugly people,
then we all look bad. NBC never would have showed a videotape of
Englishmen training Colombians. It is more exciting when it is us
Israelis. We are blamed for wrongdoing around the world, beyond
honest proportion. Perhaps the best we can do is make it less
likely that our boys get caught."    Dan Raviv is a CBS News
correspondent based in London. Yossi Melman, an Israeli journalist,
is a Nieman Fellow this year at Harvard. Their book, "Behind the
Uprising," will be published in November by Greenwood Press. 
    


LARA BONILLA, Rodrigo.


Minister of Justice and opponent of traffickers. He was
assassinated on April 30, 1984.
 DATE: TUESDAY      May 1, 1984
                             THE WASHINGTON POST
 PAGE:   A20    EDITION: FINAL
 SECTION: FIRST SECTION                                   LENGTH:
SHORT
 AROUND THE WORLD
JUSTICE CHIEF ASSASSINATED IN COLOMBIA
BOGOTA, Colombia-Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was
assassinated  yesterday by two gunmen on a motorycle who opened
fire on his car on a street  in northern Bogota.
    A police patrol accompanying Lara Bonilla fired at the two men
on the  motorcycle, killing the assailant and wounding the other
man, The Associated  Press reported.
    Drug smugglers had repeatedly threatened Lara Bonilla,who had
vigorously  fought their activities. Lara Bonilla, 40, was also a
senator for the New  Liberalism, a splinter party.
   Police did not immediately identify the two assailants but said
the wounded man was taken into custody.
LEEN, Jeff.
Co-author of Kings of Cocaine.
LEHDER  RIVAS,  Carlos  Enrigue.


Arrested  in  the  USA for marijuana trafficking in September 1973. 
 Surfaced  later  as  owner of Norman's Cay 60 miles south of
Nassau, Bahamas.  From the Cay, enormous quantities of HCL were
shipped to the USA in the late 1970s.  In December 1981 Florida
District Court charged him with moving  3.8  tones  of  HCL  from 
Key  Norman to Astor Park, Florida between January 1979  and  april 
1980.    He escaped from Bahamas and returned to Colombia in later
1979.
In Armenia, he began buying  up  major  estates and created a major
hotel and park "La Posada".  He  formed  his own political party,
the National Latin
Movement in 1986 and sought to have it recognized in 1987.  Lehder
founded his
own newspaper, and Hernando  SUAREZ  BURGOS,  Liberal Congressman,
narino drug trafficker and part of an Ecuador  connection, and
owner of various factories, hotels, etc., was Lehder's man  in 
Pasto  and there Suarez founded the Diario del Sur.
Lehder was a known drug  user.    Leader of the "Secuestables"
(those who could be kidnapped,  self  defense  group  against 
guerrilla).    He was once responsible for activities relating to 
the Medellin cartel's fleet of planes. Thru fugitive financier
Robert VESCO struck  a deal with Castro to permit drug planes to
fly unmolested through Cuban airspace.   As his luck turned sour,
he was often used as an expert to  oversee  the "cooking" of HCL
occurring in the Medellin cartel's main cocaine  processing 
laboratories.   (Especially at the Airapua Estate in the  Llanos.) 
  Helped  finance  terror attacks on the GOC.
Among his lieutenants were Rodrigo VILLA,  who was murdered by
unknown gunmen, and John OSORIO.
Within hours of the burial of  Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara in May
1984, a warrant was issued for his arrest.   He was later captured,
but claimed that Jacoba  ARENAS,  a  FARC  ideologist,  was  the 
largest  of  Colombia's  drug traffickers.  Lehder was extradited
to the  USA.  Tried and convicted in 1988, he is serving a life
sentence without possibility of parole in the Federal Correctional
Institute in Marion, Illinois.
UPse 10/26 1553  Three found guilty in `Son of Lehder' case
    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (UPI) -- A federal court jury returned
guilty verdicts Thursday against three of the five American
defendants in the so-called "Son of Lehder" cocaine-distribution
case.
   Found guilty were Jack Carlton Reed, 59, of Jacksonville; Barry
Kane, 52, a Hyannis, Mass., attorney; and Donald Kenneth Lady, 41,
a Pomona, Calif., contractor.
   Two other defendants, Thomas H. Herington, 35, of Mill Valley,
Calif., and Samuel T. Stewart, 53, an Anaheim, Calif., air charter
operator, were found not guilty.
   The five were accused of conspiring with convicted Colombian
drug lord Carlos Lehder Rivas to distribute cocaine and with
operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Reed was found guilty
on both counts, while Kane and Lady were found guilty only on the
continuing criminal enterprise charge.
   Sentencing for Reed, Kane and Lady was set for Jan. 12.
   Reed is already serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted
along with Lehder last year on cocaine-distribution charges.
   Lehder, 40, is reputed to be one of the founders of Colombia's
cocaine-smuggling Medellin cartel, which authorities say produces
most of the illicit cocaine that reaches the United States. He is
now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
   Prosecutors argued during the trial before U.S. District Judge
John H. Moore II that all five defendants were part of Lehder's
organization and that the conspiracy to distribute cocaine dates
back to 1974, when Lehder first proposed it while serving time in
a U.S. prison.
   Attorneys for the five defendants sought to prove in testimony
that their clients had withdrawn from the drug business or that
their involvement took place outside the statute of limitations.
   The case is a direct outgrowth of last year's Lehder trial. A
total of 31 people were indicted in the subsequent case, and
another 140 were named as alleged co-conspirators.
   Only 15 of the individuals have been arrested, however, and ten
of them earlier pleaded guilty. Government officials have said they
believe those who have avoided arrest are probably in Colombia.
   One of the fugitives is Jorge Mario de la Cuestra Marquez, 37,
who has been arrested in Colombia. Drug Enforcement Administration
officials said Wednesday they have initiated legal proceedings to
have him extradited to Jacksonville to stand trial.
   Colombian police have identified de la Cuesta as a pilot for
reputed Medellin cartel leader, Pablo Escobar, who is also wanted
in connection with the Lehder case.
   Federal authorities in Jacksonville said de la Cuesta was also
a top pilot for Lehder and often flew cocaine from Colombia to the
Bahamas. 
LEHDER, Federico Guillermo.   
Carlos LEHDER's brother, and lesser light, although he apparently
took part in trafficking.
LEMOS SIMMONDS, Carlos.


Minister of Communications under President Barco; assumed
responsibilities of Minister of Justice after the resignation of
Monica de Greiff.
Assumed position of Minister of the Interior after the resignation
of Orlando Vasquez.
APn  12/03 1726  Colombia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By STAN YARBRO Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The government Sunday rejected a truce
declared by drug traffickers in their bombing campaign and said
accepting it would leave the country in the hands of the
traffickers.
   "We will continue battling them because if we don't, we will
cease to govern," Interior Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds said.
   The Medellin cocaine cartel has announced that beginning Monday,
it will observe a "cease-fire" in its terrorist campaign with the
aim of persuading Congress to approve a national vote on the
government's extradition policy.
   The government has extradited Colombian drug suspects to the
United States as part of a crackdown on cocaine cartels that began
Aug. 18 after a leading presidential candidate and anti-drug
crusader was assassinated.
   The administration of President Virgilio Barco so far has
extradited nine suspects. The traffickers have responded with 200
bombings that have killed 29 people and injured 238.
   Barco departed Sunday for a four-day visit to Japan and after a
farewell ceremony at the airport, Lemos Simmonds reiterated the
administration's opposition to a national vote on its extradition
policy.
   "If the government accepted this proposal, the country would be
left to be governed by the desires of drug traffickers," he told
reporters.
   A congressional committee on Friday attached the referendum
proposal to legislation that would reform Colombia's constitution.
   Lemos Simmonds accused members of the committee of being
"accomplices of drug trafficking."
   He said the traffickers would stage a violent campaign of
intimidation if there were a national vote on extradition.
   Barco indicated Saturday that the government would prefer to
kill the constitutional reform legislation rather than let it pass
with the referendum bill attached.
   Abandoning reforms would endanger peace negotiations with the
April M19 Movement, the only one of Colombia's five main guerrilla
groups that has accepted an official peace plan.
   The legislation contains provisions for the guerrilla group to
run candidates for Congress. Its leader, Carlos Pizarro, has said
the guerrillas would lay down their arms on Dec. 19, provided that
the government passes the reform legislation. 
APn  12/06 2051  Colombia Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. By TOM WELLS Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A truck bomb containing a half-ton of
dynamite exploded outside secret police headquarters during the
morning rush hour Wednesday, killing at least 35 people and
wounding hundreds.
   The bomb, presumably the work of drug gangs, was the most
powerful to strike the capital since Colombia's cocaine traffickers
began a wave of terror after the government declared war on them 16
weeks ago.
   Wednesday afternoon, police deactivated a car bomb a block from
the offices of dozens of judges, the national police said.
   A spokesman for President Virgilio Barco said the bombing might
be the start of a new campaign of mass killings by the drug
traffickers, but that the government would fight on.
   The blast, which tore open a crater 20 feet deep and destroyed
or heavily damaged a score of buildings, occurred less than 24
hours after government investigators said a bomb caused the crash
of a Colombian jetliner last month that killed 107 people.
   No one claimed responsibility directly for Wednesday's
explosion, but Gen. Faruk Yanine, Bogota police chief, said it was
undoubtedly the work of drug traffickers.
   A statement from the so-called Extraditables delivered to
newspapers and radio stations in Medellin, base of the most
powerful drug cartel, said: "We will stop the war only when the
Senate understands the people must be our judge."
   The reference was to a bill that would permit a national
referendum on extraditing drug trafficking suspects wanted in the
United States. The House of Representatives approved it Tuesday
night.
   Barco's government opposes the measure, contending the drug
barons would step up terrorism before a referendum to frighten
voters into rejecting extradition.
   In their statement, the Extraditables said: "The president
should not fear what the congress decides, because the congress is
the voice of the people, and the voice of the people is the voice
of God."
   Minister of Government Carlos Lemos Simmonds told reporters
after the bombing: "The slaughter that we warned of when the House
approved extradition in the plebiscite has started." He is acting
president while President Virgilio Barco is on a state visit to
Japan.
   The bomb went off at 7:30 a.m. in an area crowded with people
bound for work on foot and in cars.
   So powerful was the explosion that it broke windows in a
building across the street from the U.S. Embassy seven miles away.
The broadcast network Caracol quoted sources with explosives
experts at the scene as saying the truck was packed with 1,100
pounds of dynamite.
   Reports on the number of dead and wounded varied, and rescuers
were pulling bodies from the rubble of buildings hours after the
blast.
   Health Minister Eduardo Diaz said in an interview with Caracol
that at least 35 people were killed, 250 seriously wounded and 750
treated for cuts, abrasions, shock and shock. Unconfirmed reports
gave higher death tolls.
   However, the television news program "24 Hours" reported the
death toll rose to 40 late Wednesday. Police said they were unable
to confirm that report.
   The explosion blew the facade off the secret police headquarters
and destroyed virtually all its walls and windows. Also heavily
damaged were an office building for federal judges across the
street and the national transit police headquarters a block away.
   Half a dozen stores across the street from secret police
headquarters were reduced to smoking rubble and about 60 cars were
destroyed.
   Visa renewal is one function of the secret police, or Department
of Administrative Security. Many foreigners usually are there on
any given weekday, but it was not known whether foreigners were
among the dead and wounded.
   This is a busy season because many foreigners go home for
Christmas, and cannot do so without reports of clean police
records.
   Minutes after the explosion, detectives at secret police
headquarters scrambled up ladders and, from the remains of cells,
pulled two stunned prisoners awaiting extradition to the United
States. The prisoners were taken away in an armored vehicle.
   Lemos said on Caracol the bombing illustrated the futility of
trying to negotiate with the drug gangs. He said the government
would not lessen its resolve to crush them.
   In their statement about the second bomb, the national police
said the device was hidden in a subcompact Renault parked in front
of a government building where dozens of judges have their offices.
The police did not say how much dynamite was in the car.
   Barco began the war on traffickers hours after they assassinated
a leading presidential candidate, Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, on Aug.
16 during a campaign speech in Bogota.
   He also reinstated extradition of suspects to the United States,
which was suspended by Supreme Court rulings in 1987 and 1988. Nine
have been sent to the United States in the past three months.
   An Avianca Airlines passenger jet exploded in the air Nov. 27
and all 107 people aboard were killed. On Tuesday, the government
said a bomb had caused the explosion.
   The government has not said who bombed the airplane, but police
and government officials say privately there is no doubt the drug
gangs were responsible.
   Not counting the plane crash victims or the victims of
Wednesday's truck bomb, 29 people have been killed and 238 wounded
by 201 bombs since Galan's assassination. 
APn  12/15 1201  Colombia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By TOM WELLS Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The Senate has effectively killed a
proposed referendum that would have allowed Colombians to decide
whether the government should continue extraditing drug traffickers
to the United States.
   "The issue has been eliminated," Interior Minister Carlos Lemos
said after the Senate failed to reach a quorum late Thursday to
vote on legislation that would have allowed the national vote on
extradition.
   The outcome was seen as a victory for President Virgilio Barco
who began battling the nation's cocaine cartels after they started
a fierce bombing and assassination campaign in a bid to stop the
extraditions. Barco believed the traffickers would have intimidated
the people in order to win the vote.
   The Senate vote was necessary to give the House time to approve
the measure before the congressional session ends Saturday.
   The Senate's failure to act also will probably doom
constitutional reforms sought by the Barco government. The House,
in defiance of the administration, attached the referendum proposal
to the reform legislation on Dec. 5.
   Among the proposed reforms is a plan that would allow candidates
backed by leftist guerrillas of the April M19 Movement to run for
congress and win seats with fewer votes than normally required. In
exchange, the guerrillas would lay down their arms.
   M19 said it will cancel its political campaign in light of the
legislative developments. The group said in a communique that the
government should postpone congressional elections scheduled for
March 11 and presidential elections set for May 27.
   "Normal elections in a country that has become unhinged would
carry us toward greater levels of violence," the communique said.
   The M19 Movement is the only one of Colombia's five leftist
guerrilla groups to hold peace talks with the government. The Barco
administration has viewed fulfilling its agreement with M19 as
essential to persuade other groups to negotiate. But administration
officials still appeared pleased by the Senate's failure to vote.
   While constitutional reform may be lost this session, Interior
Minister Lemos told reporters that the sacrifice was worth it
because it prevented "the interference of drug traffickers in
congressional decisions."
   The traffickers had sought a national vote on the extraditions.
Lemos has said the drug lords would intimidate voters into
rejecting the policy if balloting on the issue were allowed.
   The government's latest anti-drug offensive began after
traffickers assassinated Sen. Luis Carlos Galan on Aug. 18. He was
a leading presidential candidate and an anti-drug crusader.
   The Barco administration revived its extradition policy with the
United States as part of the crackdown and so far has sent nine
people to the United States to face drug charges.
   Colombia's cocaine barons responded with a bombing campaign. So
far there have been 203 attacks that have killed 188 people and
wounded 1,238.
   Government officials have blamed traffickers for the bombing of
a Colombian airliner on Nov. 27 that exploded shortly after takeoff
from Bogota, killing 107 people on board. Officials also blame the
drug lords for the Dec. 4 bombing of Colombia's secret police
headquarters that killed 63 people.
   A few hours after that blast news media in Medellin received a
communique that said traffickers would continue the attacks until
congress approved a national referendum on the extradition policy.
Letter to GOC (1986).
In 1986, 65 "extraditables" sent an letter sent to the GOC,
offering repayment of the national debt in return for amnesty.
LINARES, Luis.
Luis, who  worked  with  Medellin  traffickers  and with Escobar,
was seized in Cartagena  during  a  500  kg  bust  in  1984.
LISBOA MELGAR, Juan Carlos.
Bolivian trafficker.
APn  11/29 1927  Bolivia-Drugs Copyright, 1989. The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. 
   LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The government Wednesday announced the
arrest of a man reputed to be one of Bolivia's two major cocaine
traffickers.
   Juan Carlos Lisboa Melgar, 35, was arrested Tuesday during a
raid on a home in Santa Cruz, a drug-trafficking center 335 miles
southeast of La Paz, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gonzalo Torrico
said.
   He said police found some high-powered weapons at Lisboa's
hideout, but that Lisboa did not resist arrest. Torrico did not
give details on the weapons.
   He said Lisboa owns the biggest cocaine-processing laboratory
ever uncovered in Bolivia. He said it can produce up to 8,800
pounds a week.
   Bolivia is a major source of coca, the leaf processed into
cocaine.
   According to Torrico, Lisboa had established links with
Colombian and Peruvian traffickers to smuggle the drug to the
United States and other markets.
   There was no immediate word on charges. Police had been hunting
Lisboa for a year, and the Supreme Court had begun a trial in
abstentia.
   The country's most-wanted drug-trafficking suspect, Jorge Roca
Suarez, is still at large. 
UPn  12/09 1642  Bolivian `fat fish' cocaine trafficker freed 
   LA PAZ, Bolivia (UPI) -- The Bolivian Supreme Court has freed
top cocaine trafficking suspect Juan Carlos Lisboa Melgar, the
government said Saturday.
   Bolivia is the second-largest grower after Peru of the coca
leaf, from which cocaine is produced. The leaf is made into a paste
and most of it is shipped to Colombia for processing, according to
U.S. and Bolivian officials.
   A government statement said the Supreme Court upheld a "finding
of innocence" reached by a lower court in the city of Trinidad in
favor of Lisboa Melgar, who was arrested Nov. 26.
   Government Vice Minister Gonzalo Torrico said in the statement
that some judges and prosecutors were demonstrating "too much
weakness in confronting crime" and suggested reforms of the
judicial system.
   Lisboa Melgar was detained in an anti-drug operation in the city
of Santa Cruz, 355 miles southeast of La Paz, along with another
alleged trafficker, Herman Coimbra Saldana.
   At the time of his arrest, the government said Lisboa Melgar was
one of the "most important `fat fish' operating in the country."
   Bolivian cocaine production rose in 1989 to 78 metric tons from
72 metric tons the year before, with authorities confiscating only
7.8 tons this year, according to the newspaper Catholic Presencia,
which cited official sources.
   Bolivian authorities recently admitted that they will not meet
their goal for the reduction of the amount of land dedicated to
growing the coca leaf.
LONDONO MORALES, Guillermo. 
Drug trafficker, brother-in-law of the OCHOA VASQUEZ.  Owns a
fighting bull ranch in Colombia.  Perhaps related to Bernardo
LONDONO QUINTERO,  an  important  trafficker  who  has  worked 
with all major cartels, and is a notorious money launderer.
LONDONO QUINTERO, Bernardo. 
An  important  trafficker  who  has  worked  with all major
cartels, and is a notorious money launderer. Possibly related to
Guillermo Londono Morales.
LONG, William R.
Los Angeles Times staff writer.
LOPERA VALLEJO family. 
Traffickers  operating out of Antioquia.  Carlos LEHDER RIVAS was
captured on their estate in February 1987.  One of their most
important lieutenants is Hector CARDENAS EUSSE.
LOPEZ MENDOZA,  Ediberto. 
Considered  a major league Bogota trafficker until arrested in
January 1985.
M-19 (Movimiento de Abril 19; Movement of April 19).

 
Colombian terrorist movement, with connections to various
trafficking persons and organizations. 
During the 1989 drug war, President Virgilio Barco negotiated a
settlement but them, but refused to deal with the traffickers.
 THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
                       Copyright Times Mirror Company 1989
 DATE: SATURDAY  March 18, 1989
 EDITION: Home Edition                        LENGTH: SHORT 
PART-NAME: ONE                               PAGE: 9  PART-NUMBER:
1                               COLUMN: 5  TYPE-OF-MATERIAL: Wire
 DATELINE: BOGOTA, Colombia
 DESK: Foreign
 SOURCE: From Associated Press
            COLOMBIA, REBEL GROUP AGREE TO OPEN PEACE TALKS APRIL
1
     The government and the country's main guerrilla group signed
an accord  Friday to begin talks April 1 toward permanently ending
a 16-year-old  insurgency.
    President Virgilio Barco Vargas, in a nationwide television
address Friday  night, called on the country's other leftist
guerrilla groups to follow suit.
    The accord was signed in the mountain town of Santo Domingo,
180 miles  south of Bogota, by Minister of Interior Raul Orejuela
Bueno and Carlos Pizarro, commander of M-19, or the April 19
Movement.
    A joint declaration said four meetings that led to the accord
were held in  Colombia and Mexico after the leftist guerrillas
declared a unilateral cease-  fire eight months ago.
    The declaration said both sides agreed on talks beginning April
1 that  would ''lead to full democracy'' and reintegrate the
insurgents into society.
    The talks are to finish before legislative elections set for
March, 1990,  in which M-19 probably will participate as a legal
political party, officials  said.
    The agreement did not say when the guerrillas would have to
give up their  arms.
    An estimated 10,000 leftist guerrillas operate in Colombia.
They are blamed  for more than 2,000 deaths and nearly 500
kidnapings in 1988 alone.
    M-19's bloodiest operation was seizing the Supreme Court
building in Bogota  in 1985. The army retook the building, but 11
Supreme Court justices and 85  other people were killed.
 KEYWORDS: COLOMBIA -- REVOLTS
           GUERRILLAS -- COLOMBIA
           BARCO VARGAS, VIRGILIO
           PEACE MOVEMENTS
 
THE WASHINGTON POST
 DATE: WEDNESDAY September 27, 1989
 PAGE:   A46    EDITION: FINAL
 SECTION: FIRST SECTION                         LENGTH: SHORT 
SOURCE: From News Services and Staff Reports
 DATE-LINE: BOGOTA, Colombia
 MEMO:
   STORY-TYPE: NEWS FOREIGN
   COLUMN-NAME: AROUND THE WORLD
                       BOGOTA, GUERRILLAS REACH AGREEMENT
    The M-19 leftist guerrilla group signed a peace acord with the
government  yesterday in which it made a conditional pledge to
disarm over the next year.
    The accord was signed by M-19 leader Carlos Pizarro and
presidential  adviser Jaime Pardo Rueda at the group's mountain
headquarters in Santo  Domingo in southwest Colombia.
    The M-19 grabbed international attention with its 1985 takeover
of Bogota's  Palace of Justice in which about 100 people were
killed. The agreement hinges  on a government pledge to offer
amnesty for jailed M-19 activists before the end of October. It
must be approved by the ruling Liberal Party and the Conservative
opposition.
    In an ad published in the newspaper El Tiempo, M-19 urged the
government to  pardon drug traffickers and stop extraditing them to
the United States.
    El Tiempo also reported that in Medellin, a judge dropped
charges against  Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria and Jose Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha, alleged leaders  of the Medellin-based drug
operation that supplies most of the cocaine in the  United States.
A prosecutor told the newspaper he would appeal the decision. 
KEYWORDS:
   NAME: carlos pizarro
   ORGANIZATION: m-19 
   SUBJECT: Special warfare (eg, guerilla warfare); Colombia; Peace
APn  12/12 2003  Colombia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By TOM WELLS Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Soldiers destroyed airstrips used by
drug runners Tuesday and the traffickers appeared to be losing a
campaign to get a national referendum on extradition to the United
States, news reports said.
   A peace treaty with a Colombian guerrilla group also probably
will be lost, because it is part of a bill to which the referendum
proposal is attached.
   Security forces blew up 18 clandestine airstrips Tuesday in
northern Colombia, the televised "Midday News" program reported,
quoting military sources.
   The government has said it would continue its crackdown on the
drug trade despite three months of violence by traffickers.
Officials blame the drug barons for the bombing if a Colombian
jetliner Nov. 27 that killed all 107 people aboard, and a bomb last
Monday that killed 63 and wounded more than 1,000 in Bogota.
   Earlier this month, a proposed referendum on extradition was
attached to legislation that would amend the constitution and
includes provisions for election of former guerrillas to Congress.
   That measure, part of a treaty negotiated last year by the
government of President Virgilio Barco and the April 19 Movement,
known as M-19, would allow pardons for guerrillas and permit former
rebels to form a political party.
   A Senate committee had the legislation Tuesday, but was
reluctant to take it to the entire Senate. The 20 committee members
were not talking about the bill, and no one suggested it should
even come to a vote, the Bogota dailies El Tiempo and El Espectador
reported.
   If the legislation is not approved by the Senate by the time
congress adjourns Friday, it could die.
   Changes contained in the bill would assure former guerrillas six
seats in the 119-member House and six in the 104 member Senate.
   Members now are elected from a specific district and need about
20,000 votes to win. Former guerrillas would need a minimum of
4,000 votes, which could come from throughout the country.
   Under other constitutional changes, prosecutors and not
magistrates would investigate criminal cases and the country would
have a vice president. Someone now is designated to take over if
the president dies, but he has no regular role in government.
   The bill sets a national referendum on the constitutional
changes for Jan. 21.
   It was approved by the House of Representatives, with the
extradition rider, by a vote of 109-4, causing accusations in the
press of bribes and bullying by the cocaine lords.
   A statement from the traffickers, who call themselves the
Extraditables, said would not relent in their campaign of bombing
and assassination until a referendum on extradition was held. 
MARQUEZ PEREZ, Lizardo.  
The Colombian link in the Venezuelan drug trail.
Worked with  Fabio  OCHOA  RESTREPO  (who  sold  horses  in  both
Colombia and Venezuela).  Seemingly involved with  Pablo  ESCOBAR
GAVIRIA in the management of his hotel  properties  in  Venezuela. 
  In  turn,  his contact for ongoing shipments of Medellin cartel
cocaine was Francisco OCANDO PAZ, a Venezuelan.
MARTINEZ ROMERO, Eduardo.



Apprehended in August 1989; believed to be a key figure in Medellin
cartel money laundering. On September 7, 1989, he was extradited to
the United States on the order of Minister of Justice Monica de
Greiff.
The Washington Times, Wednesday, August 23, 1989; U.S. moves to
extradite drug financier by Warren Strobel, The Washington Times:
The Bush administration yesterday moved to extradite one of
Medellin cartel's top money men and said it planned similar actions
against an estimated 80 other Colombian drug traffickers wanted in
the United States.
The administration action came after Colombia said it was ready to
turn over Eduardo Martinez Romero, a cartel financier whose arrest
was announced Monday in a continuing sweep of suspected drug
traffickers.
The effort to bring Mr. Martinez here to stand trial on money-
laundering charges is expected to provide the first test of the
state of siege extradition procedures announced by Colombian
President Virgilio Barco in response to a wave of killings aimed at
intimidating opponents of the drug cartels.
Under the procedures, suspected narcotics traffickers can be
extradited to the United States with only a cursory review by the
Colombian judiciary, whose members have been harassed, bribed and
killed by the powerful cartels.
We are taking steps to provide the necessary documentation to
secure his [Mr. Martinez'] extradition to the United States,
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said at a press conference
yesterday.
Despite an indictment against Mr. Martinez in Atlanta in March, the
United States has not previously requested his extradition from
Colombian.
Mr. Thornburgh, meanwhile, released a list of the 12 Colombian drug
kingpins most wanted by the United States and said the names would
be shared with the Colombian government and Interpol, the
international police organization.
This list of a dozen priority offenders is only the first phase of
our extradition efforts, Mr. Thornburgh said. Our review of those
whom we seek for trial is ongoing and the list is likely to be
supplemented in the near future.
The attorney general said the administration plans to take full
advantage of Colombia's recent anti-drug efforts. Washington will
ask other nations for help should the 12 flee Colombia, he added.
On the list are many cartel leaders already under indictment in the
United States, including Pablo Escobar Gaviria, known as the
Medellin group's godfather.
Also on the list are Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez and Jose Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha, the two other leading members of the cartel.
The Medellin cartel and a smaller one based in Cali are responsible
for an estimated 80 percent of the cocaine imported to the United
States. Bogota's roundup of as many as 14,000 suspects-Êmany of
whom have since been released-has yet to snare any of the
organization's top echelon.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States
is pleased with the capture of Mr. Martinez. But he acknowledged
that Mr. Martinez is involved in money laundering, not a major
figure who sets cartel policy.
The idea that somehow or another the drug lords are going to be
rolled up in a week is not realistic, said an administration
official, saying it would take both time and continued political
will from the Colombians.
Another U.S. official said the administration is reviewing the
names of those taken into custody by Colombian authorities, with
the intent of forming a short list of those that we've definitely
got the goods on. That list would then be transmitted to the
government in Bogota.
An estimated 80 Colombians have been indicted in the United States
on drug charges.
The Colombian Supreme Court in 1987 declared unconstitutional an
extradition treaty with the United States, making it virtually
impossible to bring suspected drug traffickers to justice.
While it could not be learned yesterday how many U.S. extradition
requests have been pending in Bogota, officials said it is likely
the Bush administration will renew the requests by sending new
legal documents to the Colombians.
Certainly if there are people who are still wanted in the United
States, we will continue to try and get them-now that there is a
possibility that we can get them, said an administration legal
expert.
The United States is unwilling to divulge details about extradition
proceedings against cartel members, including Mr. Martinez, because
it fears that law enforcement agents-such as the U.S. marshals who
might bring them back here-would then become targets for the
traffickers.
Mr. Martinez, 35, was indicted March 29 as part of Operation Polar
Cap, a U.S. investigation into a ring that laundered an estimated
$1.2 billion in drug profits over two years. The investigation
resulted in charges against 127 persons and two Latin American
banks.
A 75-page indictment filed in Atlanta charges that Mr. Martinez
acted as a broker in negotiating with money-laundering groups on
the cost of laundering the Medellin cartel's drug proceeds.
It could take anywhere from several weeks to much longer for the
suspect to be extradited to United States, depending on how fast
Colombia puts the new procedures in place and how much judicial
review they receive, the U.S. legal expert said.
I'm not sure who the wheels of justice move in this area,Ê Mr.
Boucher said. But it's certain that we want him in the United
States. We want to prosecute him here, and we're discussing with
them how to get him back here.
In light of last week's assassinations in Colombia, the
administration said yesterday it was speeding up a Justice
Department program, funded at $2.5 million annually this fiscal
year and next, to train Colombian judges, other government
officials and journalists to defend themselves against reprisals
from the drug traffickers.
Colombian drug cartels have murdered more than 50 judges in recent
years and have terrorized other civil and military authorities as
well.
Any further increase in the roughly $10 million that United States
spends annually to help Colombia to fight drugs is not expected to
be announced until the Bush administration unveils a comprehensive
anti-drug strategy early next month.
On a related topic, Mr. Boucher said the State Department was
looking into reports Israeli and South African mercenaries are
helping to train hit squads for the Colombian drug cartels.
Behind the Colombia Bust
A DEA Scam Hooks a Drug-Cartel Money Man
    ---
    BY Peter Ross Range DD        08/27/89 SO        WASHINGTON
POST (WP), PAGE 01: OUTLOOK TX
    IN THEIR Atlanta headquarters, John Featherly and Cesar  Diaz
were on to something big. For months, they had been laundering
millions of illegal drug dollars for Colombia's  notorious Medellin
drug cartel.
    Now, they had made contact with a man at the top fo the  heap
in the cartel's financial operations. The Atlanta pair  had ample
reason to celebrate. For one thing, there was a  4-percent
commission on all the cash they could shuffle  through several U.S.
bank accounts and into a Colombian-controlled bank in Panama.
    For another, Featherly and Diaz were not crooks at all.  They
were undercover agents of the Drug Enforcement  Administration. And
the man they had now conned was Eduardo  Martinez Romero -- the
biggest initial arrest in last week's massive crackdown on
Colombia's drug lords.
    In comparison to the cartel bosses being sought in the 
national dragnet triggered by multiple murders of Colombian 
officials, Martinez is described as only a "medium fish." But  to
federal drug agents and prosecutors in Atlanta and  Washington who
ran the multi-million laundering sting, he's a  splendid catch. And
it will be particularly rewarding if *  Martinez is successfully
extradited, because he had eluded  U.S. agents by minutes in an
arrest attempt a few months ago  in Panama.
    How U.S. narcotics cops tracked and suckered Martinez into  a
DEA-sponsored money-laundering scam is emblematic of the  methods
and success, and extraordinarily high labor costs, of 
anti-trafficking efforts today. Featherly and Diaz were only  a one
part of an operation that involved more than two years'  work by
undercover agents, DEA supervisors and technical  experts as well
as the drug task force of the U.S. attorney's  office in Atlanta.
    The operation also reveals a new reality in the drug  business:
The trade is so successful that its biggest problem is not the
threat of arrest or seizures of drugs, but how to  move vast
amounts of money. Annual sales revenues are  estimated at $100
billion, and almost all of it begins as  cash. Managing that volume
is extremely difficult, since  federal law requires reporting of
cash transactions or bank  deposits in excess of $10,000. Some of
the currency is used  to purchase cars or small businesses,
airplanes and real  estate. But most of it must be converted into
another form  for return to the drug lords.
    Laundering money is the process of transforming tainted 
currency into some other asset that is untraceable to its 
ill-gotten origins: property, investments, overseas bank  accounts.
Untraceable funds are "clean." Once, the money  enters a bank
account, it can be moved instanteously anywhere  in the world by
computerized electronic transfer with no  special reporting
requirements. This is the favored device of  overseas drug
traffickers who use the international banking  system the same way
that, say, General Motors does: to  repatriate revenues and pay
production costs. When tainted  narcodollars are co-mingled with
clean money in the worldwide wire transfer system; they become
almost impossible to trace.  "Once it's transferred overseas, the
money trail is cut,"  says a Miami-based Internal Revenue Service
investigator.
    Cash laundering is the lifeblood of the narcotics trade,  the
essential service without which the drug cartels cannot  operate.
Because of the staggering sums generated daily by  street sales in
the United States, the normally nationalistic  Colombian
traffickers are willing to step outside the Hispanic community to
find professionals, who can launder  their money quickly and
efficiently. They want service from  U.S. residents with expertise
in accounting and a high  comfort level around a big bucks --
"respectable type people  from the suburbs," as one DEA agent puts
it.
    That's where Featherly and Diaz came in. In their  elaborate
ruse to receive Martinez and his minions in the  cartel's
laundering pipeline, Featherly and Diaz assumed  roles that came
naturally to them, Featherly is an affable  New York Irishman with
a certain world-weariness who passed  himself off as "Jimmy Brown,"
a shadowy New York Businessman  and accountant accustomed to
handling large-financial transactions. He portrayed Brown as a high
roller with some  former connections to Mafia money, "a high guy
who talks to  high guys," says agent Featherly in a language the
crooks  apparently understood.
    His sidekick, Diaz, a Cuban native raised in Miami, played 
"Alex Carrera," a Cuban-born, Miami-raised smoothie trying to  make
his way in the world of major crooks. Together, this  improbable
Crockett-and-Tubbs team led the penetration into  the laundering
operations of Eduardo Martinez.
    The story -- according to federal affidavits and  interviews
with U.S. law-enforcement officials -- began in  1986, when the
Atlanta-based DEA agents launched a scheme to  lure Colombian drug
traffickers into a smuggling deal. That  effort, in turn, led to
the $17-million money-laundering scam  that turned into an
unexpected law-enforcement bonanza.
    The DEA already had experience in smuggling operations.  Its
undercover operatives had once before baited Colombian  traffickers
into their net with offers of secure airstrips in  Georgia and
North Carolina. That sting, known as the  Caraballo case, led to
three dozen arrests and the seizure of 700 kilos of cocaine. But it
also produced a special bonus: A  turncoat trafficker who agreed to
become a DEA informant  operating inside the trafficking rings.
    In 1968, the DEA sent that informant to Colombia to meet  with
his cartel contacts. In Medellin, he found the  traffickers more
concerned about getting their prodiguous  daily profits out of the
United States and into Latin  American banks than about making
arrangements for smuggling.
    In the drug business, networking is done the same way as  on
Wall Street or K Street, except that credentials aren't  found on
resumes. What's important is who vouches for you.  Cartel bosses
were looking for new laundering routes for  their embarrassment of
drug riches. The confidential  informant said that he just happened
to know a money-mover  named "Jimmy Brown" and gave him an
automatic vouch."
    In January 1987, Featherly and Diaz -- in their roles as  Jimmy
Brown and Alex Carrera -- began meeting in Atlanta with  two
Colombian launders named Jaime Parra and Francisco  Serrano. The
DEA agents started laundering drug cash  collected in the United
States, passing it through Atlanta's Citizens & Southern National
Bank and New York's Chase  Manhattan and Republic banks. Then the
funds were wired to  accounts in Latin America, including the Banco
de Occidente  in Panama.
    Later in 1987; the DEA's confidential informant was driven to
meet another, bigger cartel launder in Medelin -- Eduardo 
Martinez. Martinez had heard of the Atlanta operation, and  was
looking for another channel for his money. He bragged to  the
informant that he handled big accounts, and opened a  ledger that
listed $12 million in laundered funds during one  month Featherly
and Diaz soon got a chunk of that business.
    Though Martinez refused to come to the United States, the 
agents often met the other Colombians for meals in the quiet 
luxury of Atlanta's Ritz Carlton Hotel on Peachtree Street.  In
contrast to the jewelry-draped ostentation of many U.S.  drug
dealers, the Colombian traffickers prefer a style of  understated
wealth, says Featherly. Throughout the  negotiations, he found
Parra and Serrano -- and later  Martinez -- to be sophisticated in
matters of money. The  trick to the play-acting, says Featherly,
was convincing the crooks that he was a  serious, rich businessman.
Elegant  suits, posh hotels and expensive meals were the everyday 
accoutrementrs of the launders' operations -- as was a  certain
personal decorum.
    When the Colombians first decided to trust "Jimmy Brown" with
an initial sum to launder, a courier arrived in a hotel  bar with
$94,000. Featherly angrily told the runner he didn't  do business
in bars and that he should take the shoeboxes  full of cash
upstairs to "Alex's" hotel room. "I never  touched cash," says
Featherly. "I made it seem that was for  my workers to do." Once
the $94,000 ("peanuts," says  Featherly) was successfully
laundered, the Colombians began  moving millions Featherly's way.
    The DEA laundering scam delibertely operated slowly to 
accumulate maximum evidence. It photographed every single  dollar
bill of the $17 million that passed through it's hands  during the
18-month operation. This foot-dragging had the  desired effect:
Eduardo Martinez demanded a meeting with the  Atlanta launderers.
But he refused to come to Atlanta,  choosing Panama instead.
    In early 1988, Featherly sent Diaz to meet Martinez in  Panama,
knowing the move might anger Martinez. "It was like a  general
sending a sergeant to meet another general," laughs  Featherly. For
Diaz, the meeting on January 18, was a kind of  fiery baptism in an
unfamiliar form of undercover work. The  DEA agent expected to meet
Martinez in a hotel room  somewhere. Instead, he was summoned to a
conference room at  Banco de Occidente de Panama, the
Colombian-owned bank that  was being used as a laundering conduit.
Diaz, who was unarmed  and wore no microphone, felt uneasy: "You
always try to keep  things in a neutral spot. You don't want to get
on the bad  guy's turf."
    Too late, Diaz found himself in the very belly of the  beast,
seated across from Martinez and his co-launderers,  later joined by
two now-indicted bank officers who assisted  in the laundering.
When Martinez walked in, remembers the  agent, "they treated him
like the president of the bank."  (Banco de Occidente last week
pleaded guilty in U.S. District  Court in Atlanta to laundering
charges.) At that time, the  DEA had an estimated $5 million in
Martinez's drug money tied up in its launderling pipeline. Martinez
began pressing Diaz  on the reasons for delays. Trying not to
appear nervous, Diaz  smiled a lot and claimed not to know any
answers. Whenever  possible, he passed the buck to the conveniently
absent  "Jimmy Brown." For Diaz, operating solo and surrounded by 
dangerous men, the situation tested his improvisational  skills to
the utmost. "I was just wingin' it, making it up as  I went along,"
he laughs today.
    Under pressure, Diaz offered to call the U.S. banks to  find
out why certain cash deposits had not yet been  transferred. "Then
I remembered, 'It's January 18, Martin  Luther King's Birthday. The
banks are closed.' That got me  off that hook." Undercover work can
make substantial demands  on creativity.
    Finally, two months later, in March 1988, Martinez went  for
the big bait. He wanted to meet with Featherly. "We tried  to get
him to the U.S., but he was too smart, he wouldn't  come," says one
DEA agent. But Martinez did agree to a  meeting on the Caribbean
island of Aruba, only 80 miles off  the Colombian coast and a
favorite vacation retreat of wealthy Colombians who may travel
there without a visa.
    For the meeting, Featherly took a $550-a night suite in a 
beachside hotel. Diaz came as sidekick and Spanish-speaking 
interpreter. DEA agent Albert Latson and a DEA engineer acted  as
backup agents in case of trouble -- and also installed a  hidden
video camera in Featherly's hotel suite. They recorded  hours of
conversations with Martinez, who, among other  things, revealed
details of a competing money-washing service  called La Mina. (This
tip would lead to a massive  cross-country investigation called
Operation Polar Cap that  smashed La Mina's $12.2 billion Los
Angeles-based laundering  ring in February of this year.) In Aruba,
the hours of good  drinks, good meals and long conversation in the
salubrious  tropicaL setting had made pals of Featherly and
Martinez --  "a warm relationship between crooks," as one DEA agent
put  it.
    Indeed, the ruse was so convincing that when the La Mina 
laundering operation was shut down in February, Featherly's  phone
in Atlanta began ringing off the hook as the cartel's  laundering
business shifted to him.
    Within five weeks, Featherly's team was ready to close  down
operations and arrest Martinex. Cesar Diaz was scheduled  on March
29 to have another meeting with Martinez at a bank  in Panama. DEA
agents and the Panamanian Defense Forces  staked out the bank. But
Martinez, possibly tipped by  supporters of Gen. Manuel Noriega,
somehow got out of the  bank even as Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh was mistakenly  announcing his arrest at a Washington
press conference. Then,  the money fish slipped the net. Last week
he was back in.
    Peter Ross Range is a national correspondent for U.S. News  &
World Report.
    ART:ill  dan sweetman for TWP 
UPse 10/27 1008  Colombian's lawyers say drug charges hyped
   ATLANTA (UPI) -- Attorneys for accused Medellin drug cartel
financiar Eduardo Martinez Romero accused federal prosecutors of
hyping charges against the Colombian for political reasons.
   In motions filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta,
Martinez' lawyers claim the indictment against him is largely
fiction, reflecting a "high-flown conspiracy theory" aimed at
linking him to Panamian dictator Antonio Manuel Noriega, Cuban
dictator Fidel Castro and the "obscure Medellin cartel."    "The
government seeks to sweep every narcotics trafficker, money
launderer and politician worldwide into one monolithic conspiracy
charge," the lawyers wrote.
   Martinez was extradited to Atlanta last month by the Colombian
government and is being held in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
He was the first reputed major figure in the Medellin cartel
extradited to the United States in the government's war on the
illegal narcotics trade.
   A two-count indictment issued in March accused Martinez, 36, of
aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine by laundering or
conspiring to launder more than $1.2 billion in drug profits.
Prosecutors have called Martinez the finance minister of the
powerful Medellin cartel, which is engaged in a violent conflict
with the Colombian government.
   The motions also revealed another player in the case was being
held at the Atlanta prison.
   Listed on the motions is G. Richard Strafer of Coral Gables,
Fla., a law partner of Jose Quinon, who was co-counsel in last
year's 7 1/2-month trial of Medellin cartel kingpin Carolis Lehder
Rivas. Lehder was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
   The indictment resulted from a widespread undercover
investigation in which agents posed as money launderers and drug
traffickers. It also names two banks in Colombia and Panama and
nine other individuals, including reputed cartel kingpins Pablo
Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Ochoa Vasquez and Gustavo de Jesus Gaviria
Rivera.
   Sixteen other indictments and investigations of those reputed
kingpins, and dozens of other people, are mentioned in the
consipracy charges against Martinez. His attorneys say that is
unfair "because the line between the separate conspiracies is hard
to draw."
   The motions also privided the first hints of how the attorneys
will try to explain Martinez' involvement with millions of dollars
in chas that the government alleges he knew were drug proceeds.
MARTINEZ VALDEZ, Jorge.
Captain in Cuban military; involved with Pablo Escobar in
transshipment of cocaine through Cuba; sentenced to death.
MARULANDA, Diego.  
Cali cartel.    Involved in setting up the Cali Miami-New York
nexus in later  1970s.    Fernando  MARULANDA, perhaps a relative,
is linked to the  Pereira  group  of  traffickers.   Armando
MARULANDA JARAMILLO, perhaps a relative, was reportedly  extradited 
to  the  US on drug charges in 1987.
MATTA BALLESTEROS, Juan Ramon (aka El Negro).



Honduran trafficker with many contacts in Colombia.   Began  as 
pistolero,  and  developed  contacts  with  Mexican and Medellin
capos.  Believed responsible for  the  murder of a DEA agent in
1985.
Matta bribed 18 prison guards and walked out of a Bogota prison in
March 1986.
Returned to his home in Honduras where he was captured in 1988 and
deported to the USA.
Los Angeles Times, Thursday, September 6, 1989;
Major Drug Ring Leader is Convicted by Henry Weinstein, Times Staff
Writer:
A wealthy Honduran businessman, considered by federal prosecutors
to be most significant international drug trafficker ever tried in
the western United States, was convicted by a federal court jury in
Los Angeles on Wednesday of running a major cocaine syndicate and
faces a possible life sentence.
U.S. Atty. Gary A. Feess said Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros is on
the level of the top 10 Colombian drug traffickers.
The conviction of Matta stemmed from a Sept. 24, 1981, raid in
which U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 114 pounds
of cocaine and $1.9 million at a Van Nuys apartment complex-at the
time the largest cocaine seizure in Los Angeles history.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano said , This prosecution is a
complete vindication of a federal law that provides severe
penalties for those who run major narcotics organizations. The
continuing criminal enterprise statute, Medrano said, also enable
the government to convict Matta even though he never set foot in
Los Angeles.
He oversaw, managed and supervised the operation from his
headquarters in Cali, Colombia, Medrano said.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Jimmy Gurule, the lead prosecutor, said the
case had been difficult because the government had to rely largely
on ledgers and telephone records to link Matta to the Van Nuys
operation.
Someone as big as Matta, you won't find him in L.A., just like
won't find Lee Iacocca selling cars in L.A., Gurule said in
describing the Honduran as the chief executive officer of the drug
ring.
Martin Stolar, Matta's lawyer, said his client was an innocent
victim of the war on drugs and vowed to appeal the conviction.
This trial could not have been held at a better time for the
prosecutors, with all the stories about Colombian drug dealers in
the papers and on television the last three weeks, including
President Bush's speech lat night [Tuesday], Stolar said.
Stolar sent Bush a telegram Tuesday asking him to hold off on his
major drug speech until after the jury had concluded its
deliberations in the case here. Stolar said Wednesday that he
received no response.
Matta, 46, who has significant cattle and tobacco enterprises in
Honduras, faces additional federal narcotics charges in Los
Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. He is scheduled to go on trial
there in November on charges stemming from a 1985 indictment.
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for slightly more
than four days, interrupted by the Labor Day weekend, before
returning guilty verdicts on all seven counts. Matta was convicted
on one count of conspiracy, four counts of drug possession with
intent to distribute and one count of running a continual criminal
enterprise.
The latter charge carries a potential life sentence without
possibility of parole. The other counts carry sentences of up to 20
years each.
Matta remained calm as the seven guilty verdicts were announced by
a court clerk, after jury foreman Oliver Willman informed Federal
Judge Pamela A. Rymer that deliberations were concluded.
Later Stolar said his client was very upset, particularly about the
fact that he would be separated from his wife, Nancy Vasquez, and
his five children, three of whom had attended the trial with her.
Felix Cerna Salgado, Matta's personal physician, who also is a
Honduran senator, also attended the trial for many days. He told
reporters that he had no knowledge of Matta being involved with
drugs and said that his patient gave money to the poor.
Stolar said that he will ask Rymer to overturn the verdict and, if
that plea is rejected, he said he would appeal.
Rymer set Oct. 5 as the date for Matta's sentencing. 
The government will ask for a life sentence without possibility of
parole because that's what he deserves, Medrano said.
Matta will be held in the federal penitentiary in Lompoc until
sentencing, then returned there to await his November trial.
One of the jurors said his colleagues had decided as a group not to
talk about their deliberations.
However, their verdict made it clear that they had given credence
to the prosecution's key witness, Hector Barona Beccerra, who
identified himself as a former coacine trafficker. Now in the
federal witness protection program, Barona pointed at Matta in the
courtroom and said he had flown narcotics for him since 1981,
although he had been told at the time that the man who hired him
was named Jose Campos.
Barona said that he had met Matta in Cali and agreed to fly several
loads of cocaine for him to Miami via the Bahamas.
Stolar cross-examined Barona for 3 1/2 days and spent half of his
closing argument attempting to undermine his credibility. Barona
served only seven months of in prison after a drug trafficking
conviction, and Stolar attempted to convince jurors that the
witness had obtained his freedom by agreeing to tell tall tales
about Matta.
In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gurule countered by
referring to documentary evidence that the government had presented
during the four-week trial. The government introduced voluminous
ledgers seized in Van Nuys in 1981 that detailed the drug ring's
operations.
The ledgers indicated that the enterprise had generated more than
$73 million in proceeds in just nine months. The documents seized
in Van Nuys referred to the money going to El Negro, the head of
the operation.
Prosecturs said said Matta was El Negro, while Stolar attempted to
convince jurors that he nickname was a common one in Central
America. Tuesday morning, he entered into the record a Times story
that  referred to a the arrest of a drug trafficker with the same
nickname.
The prosecutors also introduced telephone records, including
records of calls from the Van Nuys complex to the office of a
business owned by Matta's wife in Cali. Another key witness for the
prosecution was veteran Drug Enforcement Agency agent Larry Lyons,
who explained the ledgers in detail and said the Van Nuys ring
operated along the lines of a classic Colombian cocaine cartel.
We've never seen such detailed, voluminous, sophisticated ledgers,
in Spanish, in code, said Medrano, who, like his co-counsel,
Gurule, speaks fluent Spanish.
Government sources have estimated that Matta, who was once a
chemist, is worth about $2 billion. They have also said that he
planed an instrumental role in persuading Colombian cocaine
traffickers to shift many of their operations to Los Angeles in the
early 1980s after intensified state and federal efforts curbed some
of their operations in Miami.
Feess called the conviction a major victory in the government's
anti-drug campaign. He said Matta ranked with Carlos Lehder, and
international narcotics trafficker serving a life sentence without
possibility of parole in the Federal Correctional Institute in
Marion, Ill.
The particular case sends the message to Colombian we want to send-
if you extradite drug traffickers, we'll aggressively prosecute
them, and they will face stiff penalties here, Gurule said.
The prosecutors declined to predict, however, whether the
conviction would have any impact on the flow of drugs into Los
Angeles. Matta has been out of operation for some months, Feess
said, referring to the fact that he had been in custody since
April, 1988, after a controversial arrest.
Matta was seized by Honduran police and U.S. officials at his ranch
outside Tegucigalpa. Honduras has no extradition treaty, and
widespread anti-U.S. riots ensued. The annex to the U.S. Embassy
was burned.
Matta apparently has generated considerable good will in Honduras
by employing as many as 5,000 people at his cattle, cigar and milk
production facilities.
The 1981 Van Nuys raid stemmed from a tip by DEA agents in
Colombia. Seven people were arrested at the time. Five pleaded
guilty, and one was convicted in a trial. They are all serving
lengthy sentences. The seventh defendant fled and remains a
fugitive. Matta was indicted in this case in 1984.
MAYA RESTREPO, Juan Fernando.
Close  to Pablo ESCOBAR, and regarded as his "political secretary".
MEDELLIN CARTEL.
Based in Medell’n, Colombia; one of the major narcotics trafficking
organizations.
The Medell’n cartel was founded in 1982 in response to the
kidnapping of Martha Nieves OCHOA VASQUEZ by the M-19. Key founders
of the Cartel were Pablo Emilio ESCOBAR GAVIRIA, JosŽ Gonzalo
RODRIGUEZ GACHA and Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ.
Medellin Cartel Leaders Offered U.S. a Deal               Officials
Rebuffed Plan That Sought Amnesty for Ending           Drug Trade,
Providing Data on Leftists
             ---
BY Michael Isikoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
07/20/88
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 04: A SECTION TX In the fall of 1986,
the leaders of the world's largest cocaine cartel offered U.S.
officials a deal in which they would abandon the drug trade and
provide sensitive intelligence about leftist guerrillas in Colombia
in return for amnesty from prosecution, according to law
enforcement sources and documents.
   In proposals presented to a Miami lawyer, the three top leaders
of the Medellin cartel offered to "work for American intelligence"
and inform on their guerrilla allies by supplying information about
alleged Libyan arms shipments and Cuban personnel operating inside
Colombia, according to           internal Drug Enforcement
Administration reports recounting the offer and other law
enforcement sources. The cartel's proposed deal was reported by the
lawyer to DEA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Miami,
which passed it along to senior Reagan administration officials in
Washington. But it was never pursued or taken seriously, according
to U.S. law enforcement sources. "We don't do business with
international outlaws," said Ann B. Wrobleski, assistant secretary
of the state for international narcotics, who said she was aware of
the offer.  "These people are the scum of the earth." Nevertheless,
the DEA documents recounting the cartel's efforts "to open
negotations with the U.S. government" provide a rare glimpse into
the leadership of a secretive criminal organization that has become
the principal target of U.S. law enforcement efforts abroad.
   The documents were recently obtained by a Senate Foreign
Relations subcommittee that has been conducting a broad
investigation of international narcotics trafficking. During three
days of hearings last week, the panel heard new testimony about the
cartel's expanding activities throughout Latin America, including
buying protection from Panamanian officials, taking over businesses
in Haiti, and, in one 1984 incident, attempting to buy
surface-to-air missiles and a Bell helicopter on the international
arms market.
   "The picture one gets from all this is that of an emerging new
government," said Jack Blum, chief investigator for the panel
chaired by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). The subcommittee also is
examining whether the DEA's refusal to pursue further talks was a
missed opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of the
cartel and its relations with foreign governments. During some of
the meetings, the Miami lawyer -- whose name has been deleted from
the documents -- told DEA that cartel leaders claimed to          
be financing "both Sandinista and anti-Sandinista forces in
Nicaragua" as well as maintaining close ties to Panamanian
officials.
   Over the past 10 years, the cartel -- a loose collection of drug
traffickers centered in the industrial city of Medellin, Colombia
-- has created a highly efficient and vertically integrated
conglomerate that has been estimated to gross more than $2 billion
a year.
   From financing the growing of coca in Peru and Bolivia to the
building of chemical laboratories in the Amazon jungle to the
operation of smuggling flights into the United States, the Medellin
cartel has been the major source of the cocaine that began
appearing on U.S. streets in the mid-1980s, according to U.S. law
enforcement officials. The cartel leaders also have introduced a
new level of violence into the drug trade, establishing an uneasy
alliance with the April 19 Movement, or M-19, one of at least four
leftist guerrilla armies seeking to overthrow the Colombian
government. In exchange for money and weapons, M-19 guerrillas have
guarded the cartel's jungle airstrips and carried out occasional
contract killings and political assassinations, including the
November 1985 murder of 11 Colombian Supreme Court justices in
Bogota.  Yet the DEA documents suggest that, for all their apparent
impregnability, the cartel leaders appeared to fear the threat of
U.S. prosecution -- at least until June 1987, when the Colombian
Supreme Court, in the face of threats and intimidation, struck down
that country's extradition treaty with the United States.
   In late October 1986, the Miami lawyer, who sources said was
referred to cartel leaders by their lawyers in Colombia, was
invited to two meetings in Colombia with cartel leaders Jorge
Ochoa, Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder, who was  subsequently
captured, tried and convicted in Jacksonville, Fla. He is scheduled
to be sentenced Wednesday. The meetings took place at two 
locations -- a luxurious 3,000-acre hacienda owned by Ochoa and a
smaller ranch equipped with a private zoo in the mountains outside
Medellin, according to the documents that describe the lawyer's
account of the meetings.
   According to the account, Ochoa, a cattle rancher and horse
breeder who has been indicted by three grand juries in the United
States, vented his frustration about his legal troubles, claiming
he was employing more than 100 lawyers in the United States,
Britain and Spain. Ochoa "screamed" about the "millions of dollars"
he was paying his lawyers and was "quite angry" that he had to pay
another $6 million in bribes to judges to get released from prison
that summer. Ochoa had been arrested in Spain on drug-trafficking
charges in November 1984. But in a development that outraged U.S.
officials, Spanish authorities had extradited Ochoa to Colombia in
August 1986 to face lesser charges of illegally importing bulls
into the country. After posting an $11,500 bond, Ochoa was released
by a Colombian magistrate who U.S.  officials have long suspected
was paid huge bribes to let him go.
   In addition, the documents reveal the cartel's willingness to
turn against leftist guerrilla groups.  The flamboyant Lehder,
appearing in jungle fatigues with a rifle slung over his shoulder,
told the lawyer that he and the other cartel leaders "hate the
communists," according to the documents and closed session
testimony by the lawyer before the subcommittee.
   Citing contacts inside Nicaragua and elsewhere, Lehder contended
that he and other cartel leaders could supply the United States
with specific information about the time and location of
clandestine arms shipments to Colombian guerrillas and "background
on Cuban personnel involved in Colombia." He also claimed knowledge
of a large Libyan-supplied "radical force" operating in the
Colombian mountains that consisted of "Palestinians, Libyans,
Peruvians, Argentinians, Ecuadoreans and Cubans." "Lehder appeared
to be under the impression that he, Escobar and Ochoa can work for
American intelligence by supplying information about guerrilla
activities, thereby incurring amnesty for their efforts," according
to the DEA account. "They then can return to their families and
call an end to their trafficking activities."
   U.S. officials noted that similar offers had been floated by
cartel leaders in the past. In 1984, cartel leaders offered to pay
off the Colombian national debt -- then estimated at more than $9
billion -- if the government would drop charges against them and
scrap the country's extradition treaty with the United States.
 Wrobleski noted that at the time U.S. officials strongly urged the
Colombian government of Belisario Betancur to reject the offer --
one reason she said was that it would have been politically
impossible for the United States to  even consider the offer. Other
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition they not be identified,
said the information Lehder was offering about leftist guerrilla
groups appeared exaggerated and would have been of little use.
Nevertheless, the idea continues to be suggested by some of the
cartel's representatives. "If we were really serious about solving
the drug problem, why not offer them amnesty?" Edward R. Shohat,
Lehder's lawyer, said in a recent interview, though he said he
wasn't making a formal proposal. Three months after the meeting
with the lawyer, Lehder was captured in a jungle shoot-out after a
tip that U.S. officials think came from inside the cartel, probably
with the consent of Ochoa and Escobar.
   Chief federal prosecutor Robert Merkle said after Lehder's trial
that his  conviction had disrupted the cartel and predicted that
its "days are numbered." But U.S. officials say that, while the
cartel has suffered some temporary  setbacks, they see little
evidence that its operations are in trouble. Ochoa and Escobar have
remained at large inside Colombia and, according to all accounts,
are continuing to supervise a thriving business whose greatest
threat is not from U.S. prosecutors, but increasing competition
from a rival trafficking group called the Cali cartel. "We know
where they are, we get intelligence reports on them daily, " said
Richard Gregorie, chief assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, about the
Medellin cartel leaders last week. "We just can't get our hands on
them."
UPn  10/20 1821  Cartels request talks as bomb explodes at hotel
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Presidential candidate Bernardo
Jaramillo, who has received numerous death threats from Colombia's
drug cartels, said Friday he had been approached by the drug
traffickers and they now want to talk.
   Jaramillo, head of the Patriotic Union formed in 1984 by the
country's leftist guerrillas, said in an interview broadcast by
Caracol radio that he had received a letter from the notorious
Medellin cartel asking for a "dialogue," but said he would not
agree to talks unless the cartels halted a wave of terrorism
sweeping the South American country.
   On Friday afternoon a car bomb apparently planted as part of the
drug war exploded in front of the Royal Hotel in the coastal city
of Barranquilla and wounded six people, including a child, police
reported.
   Authorities said enraged witnesses chased down and captured two
men who parked the car -- filled with some 80 pounds of dynamite --
in front of the hotel and then fled moments before it exploded.
   Since a cartel-linked hit squad declared "total war" on the
nation Aug. 24, more than 150 bombs have exploded in Colombia,
killing at least 10 people.
   Jaramillo said such acts of terrorism should stop before the
government consents to hold peace talks with the drug traffickers.
   "We received a communication from the city of Medellin ... to
see what we thought about a possible dialogue -- not with the
Patriotic Union but between the government and the so-called
extraditables," said Jaramillo, referring to traffickers who are
wanted in the United States on drug charges.
   "The conditions don't exist for a dialague with the
extraditables as long as terrorist acts continue," said Jaramillo,
who had called for government talks with drug traffickers in the
past.
   An estimated 1,000 members of Jaramillo's Patriotic Union have
been killed by so-called drug cartel hit squads in recent years.
The party has condemned drug trafficking and much of Colombia's
cocaine crop is grown in regions traditionally controlled by the
leftist guerrilla forces.
   On Thursday, ex-president Alfonso Lopez Michelsen also said the
time was not right for establishing a dialogue with the warring
drug lords.
   "Right now a dialogue with the narcotics traffickers is not
timely, and I don't know if it should ever take place," Lopez told
reporters in the coastal resort of Cartagena after the opening of
a Chamber of Commerce meeting.
   Colombia was also grappling Friday with warring bands of
smugglers in the country's profitable emerald trade.
   Police and military reinforcements were searching Friday for 10
bandits who are believed to have gunned down seven emerald miners
Thursday in Los Mangos, about 55 miles north of Bogota, Boyaca
governor Cesar Garcia Nino said.
   The bandits made away with some $50,000 in cash and precious
stones.
   Police announced Thursday they had arrested a pilot and alleged
drug cartel member wanted on cocaine-trafficking charges by a
federal court in Florida.
   Jose Ricardo de la Cuesta Marquez, an alleged member of the
Medellin cartel, was captured late Wednesday in an exclusive
residential section of northern Bogota, police said.
   The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said the pilot was indicted
last February in Jacksonville, Fla. on charges of conspiring to
smuggle cocaine into the state.
   In other developments, authorities said two police chiefs have
been sacked for alleged involvement with the cocaine cartels.
UPn  10/23 1525  Cartel offers truce; 18 die in Colombia violence
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- The leaders of the powerful Medellin
cocaine cartel pledged Monday they would suspend their violent drug
war against the Colombian government if the government would
suspend extraditions of drug suspects to the United States.
   The offer came in a letter to Sen. Luis Giraldo, president of
the congress, after a weekend of violence that claimed the lives of
18 people, including seven teenagers gunned down on a Medellin
street corner.    The letter was signed "The Extraditables,"
Giraldo told the press. He said he would turn it over to the
government of President Virgilio Barco.    The Medellin cartel, the
largest of Colombia's cocaine producers and traffickers, declared
"war" on the government after Barco instituted extradition to the
United States in August following the assassination of leading
presidential candidate Luis Galvan. Since them, bombings have
become almost a daily occurrence and many people have died.
   Pablo Escobar, supposed head of the cartel, had previously
offered to suspend operations of the cartel in exchange for imunity
from prosecution and extradition for cartel members.
   It was not known whether any of the weekend killings were drug
related.
   The worst incident was the massacre Sunday night of seven
teenagers in Medellin.
   The youths, all under 18, were standing on a street corner
shortly before midnight when armed men roared by on a motorcycle
and opened fire, police said. Five of the victims died immediately
and two others died later at a hospital.    Police said no one
claimed responsibility for the street corner shooting.    The
secret police have said that youth gangs have been recruited by
cocaine cartel hit squads to kill political leaders and law
enforcement officials. They said they were investigating to see if
any of the youths killed Sunday night had police records.
   The assassination of two leftist union leaders as they drank
beer in a bar in northwest Colombia Saturday night sparked a strike
Monday by 22,000 banana plantation workers.
   "We have announced a halt to activities today to attend the
funeral of our companions," said Antonio Espitia, secretary general
of Sintrainagro, the banana workers' union.
   Sintrainagro called the work stoppage to protest the killing
Saturday night of leftist union activists Alberto Jose Lopez Ramos
and Henoc Campo Nunez who were shot down as they drank beer in a
tavern.
   Uraba has suffered years of violent struggles among leftist
guerrillas, the army, militant banana workers and rightist
paramilitary groups.    Two former air force officers, Edmundo
Caviedes and Roberto Quintero, were killed by leftist rebels in
Hacari municipality in North Santander state northeast of Bogota.
   A Defense Ministry source in Bogota said members of the
guerrilla National Liberation Army attacked the pilots as they
landed in a helicopter in Hacari. After killing the pilots, the
rebels fled with almost $50,000 the men were transporting to a bank
in Hacari.
   In Mutata, in the northern part of Antioquia state, three
prisoners were killed Saturday by members of the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in an attack on the
municipal jail, police said.
   Although there was no apparent connection between the prisoners
and the guerrilla group, police said the rebels entered the area at
10 p.m. Saturday and went directly to the jail, where they killed
the convicts.    Police in Medellin also said they found the bodies
of two couples in separate neighborhoods.
UPwe 11/01 0120  Anderson warns against powerful Medellin drug
cartel
   LAS VEGAS (UPI) -- Americans should not fret over a possible war
with the Soviets, but about the threat posed by the powerful
Medellin drug cartel, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson warned
Tuesday.    Anderson said the Columbian-based cartel, which does
$18 billion worth of business every year in the United States, is
a greater menace to America than the Soviet Union.
   The columnist spoke to about 2,500 people attending a luncheon
session of the Medical Group Management Association at the Las
Vegas Hilton.    Anderson warned doctors and medical administrators
not to take lightly the threat posed by the drug group.    "They
(cartel members) really would take on the powerful U.S. since there
is so much money involved," Anderson said adding that written
warnings have been sent to government officials threatening to blow
up nuclear reactors in the United States.
   "George Bush's life in in danger," Anderson said, explaining
that the president, because of his war on drugs program, has been
targeted for assassination by cartel members.
   He told of the arrests of one group of assassins in New England
and said federal law enforcement agencies have under surveillance
teams training elsewhere in the country.
   "It's not the ones we know about that are the worry, it's how
many others are there that we don't know about," he said.
UPne 01/04 1814  Report: Colombian terrorists planning city attacks
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- The police department is investigating a
report that Colombian drug dealers were planning a series of bomb
attacks against federal buildings in the city, a broadcast report
said Thursday.
   Anthony M. Voelker, chief of the department's organized crime
control bureau, said in a memo sent to top police officials that
operatives from the Medellin cocaine cartel were planning to attack
local offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or other
federal buildings, WNBC-TV reported.
   "There are persons already in place in New York with the
necessary equipment for this purpose," the report quoted the memo
as saying.
   Voelker identified the source of his information as a
confidential federal informant, and said the informant heard of the
plan from a "sub" source.
   Voelker refused to confirm or deny the existence of the report.
   "That doesn't ring a bell that kind of information I get and
pass along," Voelker said. "But it's kind of hard to answer like
that because there are lots of things like that that."
   "That doesn't mean it didn't happen," he said.  "There's lots of
information concerning threats that cross this desk and it's
routinely passed on. I don't have an independent recollection (of
the memo)."
   Police Commissioner Richard Condon, one of the two people the
report said received the memo, said he had no knowledge of any
recent warnings concerning Colombian terrorist attacks.
   NBC said the memo was also sent to Chief of Department Robert
Johnson, who could not be reached for comment. 
MEJIA PELAEZ, Luis Fernando.
Alleged Medellin money launderer operating in Mexico; captured in
San Diego, CA on November 1, 1989.
UPn  11/01 1403  Alleged Colombian launderer captured
By HILMER ANDERSON
   SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- A Colombian who allegedly headed a network
that laundered as much as $50 million a month for the Medellin
cocaine cartel has been captured in San Diego, authorities said
Wednesday.
   The suspect, Luis Fernando Mejia Pelaez, was arrested by U.S.
authorities at the same time as his alleged operation in Tijuana,
Mexico, was broken up by Mexican police.
   Thirteen others were arrested in Mexico for allegedly laundering
money on behalf of the Medellin cartel.
   Mejia was arrested last Thursday night at a San Diego motel by
U.S. Customs agents acting on a 207-count indictment charging him
with laundering $36 million in drug money through three banks and
a currency exchange house at the U.S.-Mexican border.
   Assistant U.S. Attorney L.J. O'Neale said a bail hearing for
Mejia, who was indicted in 1986 along with eight others, was set
for Wednesday before a federal magistrate.
   O'Neale said Mejia had a Colombian passport and a Mexican
driver's license that listed a Tijuana address. Authorities refused
to say how U.S. authorities were led to the motel where Mejia was
arrested or why he was in the United States.
   Mexican Federal Judicial Police said in a statement that the
Tijuana ring allegedly used two peso exchanges, three auto
dealerships and banks in Tampa, Miami, New York and Panama to
launder as much as $50 million monthly back to the drug barons in
Colombia.
   Police said 42 cars and $100,000 in cash were seized and 13
suspects arrested in Mexico. The suspects included three Colombians
and 10 Mexicans, mostly low-level members of the ring.
MELMAN, Yossi.
Washington Post journalist.MENDEZ, Rodney.
Launderer in  Bogota,  associate of Pablo ESCOBAR and  formerly VP
of Avianca. Owner of noted  restaurant  in  Bogota.    He  may  be 
a relative of Medellin trafficker Benito MENDEZ in front of whose
residence a carbomb was exploded in 1986.
MERA MOSQUERA, Eduardo.
Cali trafficker; associate of Severo ESCOBAR, Jose SANTACRUZ
LONDONO and Jose CABRERA SARMIENTO. Active in Miami, New York and
Indiana; captured in New York, but released by mistake.
APn  10/15 1507  Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By STAN YARBRO
 Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Authorities captured a man convicted
five years ago of drug trafficking charges in New York and seized
an alleged accountant for one of Colombia's powerful drug lords,
news reports said Sunday.
   Police arrested Victor Eduardo Mera Mosquera, 36, at his
apartment Friday in the southern city of Cali, according to reports
in Bogota's two largest papers, El Tiempo and El Espectador. 
   He was convicted in New York in February 1984 and charged with
taking part in a drug ring operating in New York, Florida, Texas,
California and Arizona, El Tiempo reported.
   El Espectador said he was freed from a Manhattan jail because of
a "bureaucratic error." It did not elaborate.
   The paper reported that he was arrested again in Bogota in 1986
but was released months later by a judge who ruled authorities had
not completed the paperwork for his extradition to the United
States in the time alloted by the law.
   Spokesmen for the national and local police in Cali said they
could not confirm Mera Mosquera's arrest or details about him. The
U.S. Embassy in Bogota says it cannot comment on specific
extradition cases.
   In a raid Saturday on a Bogota apartment, police captured Tulia
Consuelo Rincon Barrera, 35, whom they said was an accountant for
Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the three leaders of the
Medellin cocaine cartel, El Espectador reported.
   The young accountant maintains she never met the Medellin cartel
leader and only filled out income tax forms for one of his reputed
underlings, Leonardo Vargas Vargas, who was arrested last week, El
Espectador said.
   The two arrests reported Sunday were the fourth and fifth in a
week. Among those arrested last week were Jose Rafael Abello Silva,
34, who is wanted by a federal court in Oklahoma on charges of
conspiracy and distribution of cocaine.
   Julian Palma Molina, 46, also was arrested last week and is
wanted by federal authorities in Miami on drug trafficking and
money laundering charges. El Espectador reported Sunday that he has
been notified of his extradition and has five days to appeal.
   On Saturday, three other drug suspects were extradited to the
United States -- Ana Helena Rodriguez de Tamayo, Bernardo Pelaez
Roldan and Roberto Victor Carlini.
   The extraditions bring to four the number of people sent to the
United States from Colombia since Aug 18, but none is on the U.S.
government's list of the 12 most wanted drug suspects.
   In the first extradition, Eduardo Martinez Romero was sent to
Atlanta Sept. 6 to face money laundering charges.
   Rodriguez de Tamayo is wanted on a 1983 federal indictment in
Miami on conspiracy and drug trafficking charges. 
   Pelaez Roldan faces a 15-year-sentence after being convicted on
drug trafficking charges five years ago in Detroit. Carlini is
wanted by federal authorities in Miami.
   President Virgilio Barco announced his war on drugs after the
assassination Aug. 18 of Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, the leading
presidential candidate and an anti-drug crusader. Barco said he
would seize the property of drug traffickers and extradite reputed
narcotics figures to the United States.
   After the extraditions, gunmen Saturday killed an off-duty
police officer in Medellin, and a bomb exploded in the
drug-infested city, injuring another officer.
UPn  10/19 1545  Feds seek extradition of Colombian in estimated
$3....
Feds seek extradition of Colombian in estimated $3.5 billion coke
ring  By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- Federal authorities sought the extradition
Thursday of a convicted cocaine smuggler who used a bureaucratic
mixup to escape custody and flee to Colombia in 1984, officials
said.
   Victor Eduardo Mera Mosquera, 36, convicted in absentia of
smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States, was arrested
Saturday in Cali, Columbia, and Justice Department officials said
they were resubmitting to the Colombian government documents to
support an extradition request.
   "We are resubmitting ... all the documents in the case to have
him returned to the United States," said Joe Krovisky, a Justrice
Department spokesman in Washington. "We just want him back."
   Mera Mosqeura, a former judge in Colombia, and an associate,
Severo Escobar, directed the U.S. operations of an estimated $3.5
billion cocaine distribution ring linked to the Cali Cartel. The
cartel reportedly smuggled more than 5 tons of cocaine from Central
America through Miami, New York and Indiana in 1982 and 1983,
officials said.
   Escobar and Mera Mosqeura, described by investigators as a
womanizer who favored flashy jewelry, worked for Jose Antonio
Cabrera-Sarmiento -- known as Pepe Cabrera -- and were linked to
Cali Cartel boss Jose Santa Cruz Londono, said Bobby Johnson, a
retired police detective with the New York Drug Enforcement Task
force.
   Mera Mosquera and 16 others were indicted in 1984 on conspiracy
and cocaine distribution charges. He and Escobar were also charged
with operating a continuing criminal enterprise under the so-called
drug kingpin statute and ordered held on $1 million bail, Johnson
said.
   During pretrial hearings in the case, Mera Mosquera and Escobar
walked out of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan when a U.S.
marshal misread a sheet listing the disposition of the various
defendants, some of whom were to be released on their own
recognizance.
   The two fled to Colombia, but Escobar and Cabrera-Sarmiento were
arrested and extradited to the United States, where they were tried
and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
   Since his escape from New York, Mera Mosquera has been arrested
twice in Colombia -- once in 1986 with the assistance of U.S.
marshals -- but managed to escape each time, said an investigator
for the Marshals Service who was familiar with the case.
   Prosecutors said Mera Mosquera was responsible for coordinating
cocaine distribution for the ring in New York City, which he
claimed amounted to 1,000 kilograms a month, and collecting the
proceeds, which he once said totaled $4.5 million.
   On Saturday, the Colombian government Saturday extradited three
accused drug traffickers, including a key figure in the notorious
Medellin gang, to the United States, defying long-standing threats
of violent retaliation by the nation's powerful cocaine cartels.
   "Courage," a 1986 made-for-television movie starring Sophia
Loren and Billy Dee Williams, who played detective Johnson, was
based on the New York City woman who worked as an undercover
informant for Johnson and the task force in the 24-kilo case that
led to the arrests of Mera Mosquera, Cabrera-Sarmiento and Escobar.
UPne 12/24 0746  Colombia extradites reputed drug ring leader 
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- A convicted Colombian cocaine trafficker
released by mistake before his 1984 federal trial was extradited to
the United States Sunday for sentencing, U.S. marshals said.
   Victor Eduardo Mera-Mosquera, 36, was handed over to marshals by
the Colombian government on Saturday and flown from Bogota to New
York.
   Mera-Mosquera, a Colombian native, arrived early Sunday and was
held at an undisclosed location, said William Dempsy, a spokesman
for the U.S. Marshals Service. A sentencing date has not been set,
he said.
   Mera-Mosquera is the 11th suspected or convicted drug trafficker
extradited from Colombia to the United States under an anti-drug
program initiated by Colombian President Virgilio Barco last
August.
   The extraditions have led to a campaign of bombings and other
terrorism by the drug cartels against Colombian government,
judicial and commercial targets.
   A logistical mixup allowed Mera-Mosquera to flee from custody
prior to his February 1984 trial in New York on charges of drug
trafficking and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise,
Dempsy said. He was convicted in absentia.
   Authorities apprehended Mera-Mosquera last October in Cali,
Colombia, and the Justice Department sought his extradition.
   Dempsy said Mera-Mosquera, who is allegedly linked to the Cali
cocaine cartel, was convicted as one of two particpants in a ring
that possessed and distributed "massive quantities of cocaine."
   Prosecutors said Mera-Mosquera was linked to the Cali Cartel and
was responsible for coordinating a cocaine distribution operation
in New York, which he allegedly claimed amounted to 1,000 kilograms
a month and brought in $4.5 million.
   The government said the conspiracy operated for about a year,
beginning in November 1982.
   Mera-Mosquera was one of the drug figures portrayed in a 1986
television movie, "Courage," based on the story of the undercover
informant who provided the information that led narcotics
investigators to his arrest. 
 
UPn  12/24 0736  Colombia extradites reputed drug ring leader 
   NEW YORK (UPI) -- A convicted Colombian cocaine trafficker
released by mistake before his 1984 federal trial was extradited to
the United States Sunday for sentencing, U.S. marshals said.
   Victor Eduardo Mera-Mosquera, 36, was handed over to marshals by
the Colombian government on Saturday and flown from Bogota to New
York.
   Mera-Mosquera, a Colombian native, arrived early Sunday and was
held at an undisclosed location, said William Dempsy, a spokesman
for the U.S. Marshals Service. A sentencing date has not been set,
he said.
   Mera-Mosquera is the 11th suspected or convicted drug trafficker
extradited from Colombia to the United States under an anti-drug
program initiated by Colombian President Virgilio Barco last
August.
   The extraditions have led to a campaign of bombings and other
terrorism by the drug cartels against Colombian government,
judicial and commercial targets.
   A logistical mixup allowed Mera-Mosquera to flee from custody
prior to his February 1984 trial in New York on charges of drug
trafficking and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise,
Dempsy said. He was convicted in absentia.
   Authorities apprehended Mera-Mosquera last October in Cali,
Colombia, and the Justice Department sought his extradition.
   Dempsy said Mera-Mosquera, who is allegedly linked to the Cali
cocaine cartel, was convicted as one of two particpants in a ring
that possessed and distributed "massive quantities of cocaine."
   Prosecutors said Mera-Mosquera was linked to the Cali Cartel and
was responsible for coordinating a cocaine distribution operation
in New York, which he allegedly claimed amounted to 1,000 kilograms
a month and brought in $4.5 million.
   The government said the conspiracy operated for about a year,
beginning in November 1982.
   Mera-Mosquera was one of the drug figures portrayed in a 1986
television movie, "Courage," based on the story of the undercover
informant who provided the information that led narcotics
investigators to his arrest. 
 
APn  12/28 0845  Cocaine-Extradition 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   NEW YORK (AP) -- The 11th person extradited from Colombia to the
United States since its current crackdown against drug traffickers
began in August has pleaded innocent to drug charges.
   Victor Eduardo Mera-Mosquera, 36, a convicted cocaine smuggler,
was turned over to U.S. marshals by Colombian authorities on
Sunday.
   Mera-Mosquera was mistakenly released from federal detention in
New York and fled to Colombia before his trial in 1984. He was
convicted in absentia of drug conspiracy and distribution, for
which he faces up to 30 years in prison.
   He also faces trial on a subsequent charge of running a
continuing drug enterprise, with a maximum penalty of life in
prison. He denied the charge Wednesday before U.S. District Judge
Morris Lasker, who ordered him held without bail.
   Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Lee Warren said the government
would drop the new charge if Mera-Mosquera receives the 30-year
sentence he faces on his 1984 conviction. Colombia's extradition
treaty with the United States has a 30-year maximum on the terms
fugitives may face here.
   Mera-Mosquera was convicted of co-directing U.S. operations of
a ring that smuggled more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine, starting in
1982, according to his indictment. The new charge stems from the
same activities.
   Lasker did not set a sentencing date. 
MERMELSTEIN, Max.
Medellin cartel fixer, chemist and money manager. He was involved
in the establishment of a narcotics factory in the Llanos region
and the establishment of a cartel airstrip at Nuevo Laredo, Texas.
He is an associate of the OCHOA organization, and worked with Fabio
OCHOA in planning the assassination of Barry SEAL.
MESA VELASQUEZ,  Luis  Eduardo.
Represents traffickers Joaquin BUILES GOMEZ, and Carlos Mario TORO
VELASQUEZ.   Present at a January 1988 meeting of Medellin capos.
MESA,  Hector.    
Employee  of  Banco  Cafetero.    Suspected  of money laundering. 
Part owner of  Deportivo  Independiente of Medellin, and numerous
commercial ventures.   In  financial  difficulties,  he  sold  the
club to the PIEDRAHITA brothers and to Pablo  CORREA  ARROYAVE, and
Pablo CORREA RAMOS who was later murdered.
MILIAN RODRIGUEZ, Ramon.
Cartel accountant and money launderer; associated with both Jorge
Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ and Pablo ESCOBAR. 
As a part of his testimony in exchange for immunity from
prosecution, he laimed to have shipped vast quantities of money to
Manuel NORIEGA and that the Medellin Cartel funded Sandanista
revolutionaries in Nicaragua.
MILLON PALACIOS, Juan Bautista and  Fernando.  
Capos in the Gulf of Uraba and Acandi region.  Co-owners  of  two 
coastal airlines.  Works with Gilberto GALVEZ, a trafficker, and
with  Luis Carlos QUINTERO, Hernando BUITRAGO, Mario SALAZAR and
Ernesto MEJIA MAYA.  May also work with the PARIAS CARBO brothers,
Francisco and Julio, the latter  picked  up  in Florida in November
1980 while trying to sell 310 kilos of HCL.
MILLS, James.
Author of The Underground Empire.

Stalking International Drug Traffickers
THE UNDERGROUND EMPIRE
   Where Crime and
   Governments EmbraceBy James Mills
   Doubleday. 1,165 pp. $22.95
   By Robert Sherrill
DD        06/01/86
SO        WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 04: BOOK WORLD TX JAMES MILLS
FIGURES illegal drug dealers around the world earn a half-trillion
dollars a year, and he adds, for those who need imagery to grasp
that figure, "A half-trillion dollars would weigh more than the
entire population of Washington, D.C."
   Industrialists on that scale, needless to say, have lots of
well-placed friends. "Over a period of six years," he writes, "I
became convinced of the participation in the drug traffic of high
officials in at least 33 countries." He includes the United States,
of course, but -- except for the CIA, whose "still-fresh
footprints" he claims to have seen in a number of major narcotics
camps -- he is unfortunately vague about who or how.
   Efforts to stop drugs at the border are phony; it can only be
done at the source. Using this standard, he finds all presidents
guilty by reason of apathy, except Nixon, who was "the only
president ever to make the battle a serious foreign policy issue."
Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs, which Mills considers "a joke," can
be measured by the $50.2 million the United States spent to control
drugs around the world in 1984 -- "less than the value of a single
load of cocaine." If our leaders weren't less concerned with
cocaine overdoses and "marijuana-fogged seventh graders" than they
are with maintaining diplomatic relations with criminal
governments, says Mills, they would twist the arms off Peru, whose
coca amounts to half of all the cocaine consumed in the United
States, and Panama, "the world's cocaine banker," and Mexico and
Colombia, whose profits from drugs "probably amount to 75 percent
of their total export earnings."    Instead, the United States goes
along with the charade of Latin American cooperation. "A Colombia
Navy patrol boat, provided at a cost of $2 million by the United
States, operating in the most smuggler-infested waters in the
world, had in two years searched only fifteen vessels. It seized
one kilo of cocaine, some marijuana residue, and a small amount of
American currency. Of two hundred arrests made by a Colombian
Customs boat (also a gift of the United States), only four
defendants had been convicted and all of them subsequently
'escaped.' "
   If President Reagan is still in the mood to retaliate against
terrorists, he might want to consider bombing Bogota. Mills lists
two full pages of anti-American terrorists attacks by Colombian
drug dealers seeking revenge for our lack of hospitality.
   But let's not get too serious. Only a minor part of The
Underground Empire is addressed to the author's outrage. Most of it
is about spirited narcs-and-dealers chases.    ONE NIGHT in 1979 at
a Washington party Mills heard some guests talking about "Centac,"
and when he asked what it was, the answers were "politely evaded or
ignored." And yet the next day he was taken, "without warning or
explanation," to a hideaway suite "in one of Washington's most
notorious wino-junkie neighborhoods," to meet Dennis Dayle, head of
Centac, an elite corps of 50 agents in the Drug Enforcement Agency,
who spent the next four hours answering every question Mills could
think to ask.
   Hey! What remarkable luck! Why was he chosen for that flood of
candor when, he says, up to that time "no more than a handful of
men in the world understood completely what Centac was and what it
did"? We don't get an answer. Nor do we learn why, a few weeks
later, the DEA decided to let him have access to some of its secret
files and tag along, tape recorder humming, on some of Centac's
operations.    My guess is that DEA wanted some classy publicity to
use at budget time and it knew Mills could handle both nonfiction
(The Prosecutor) and fiction (Report to the Commissioner), and had
a good sense of humor and a sometimes Saturday-matinee style that
would go nicely with the DEA's usual blend of fact and fiction.
   If that was the motive, Mills produced too late. Centac was
killed when the Reagan Administration reshuffled the drug
enforcement bureaucracy.
   The Underground Empire can serve as Centac's eulogy and
sarcophagus. It is sometimes floridly windy enough for the one
("Like a solitary flower pushing vulnerably from a crack in parched
earth, Centac's chances of survival in the tradition-bound
bureaucracy were uncertain indeed"), big enough for the other.
   Mills describes his adventure with Centac as "a five-year
odyssey through a labyrinthine underground world I believe no
journalist ever before traveled end-to-end, a meticulously
filligreed web of passages within which hums and clatters a
multibillion market of drugs, assassins, weapons, and spies. It was
a world of diplomats, statesmen, global politics, and crime, where
everything could be bought for cash -- lives, armies, the
governments of nations."
   Wow! But let's go on. "Centac became at once a lens through
which to view that Empire, and a vehicle to take me to its center,
face to face with its leaders, their wives and lovers, into their
mansions and yachts, their banks and counting rooms, to a secret
wonderland of wealth so vast it threatened the economic stability
of the world."
   I don't remember accompanying Mills to all those places, but he
did do an awful lot of leg work and interviewing. My only quibble
is that most of those he got his information from were,
necessarily, drug agents and drug dealers (turned stool) who were
doubtless eager to impress this writer with what romantic chaps
they were -- "free spirit people," as one dealer put it to Mills.
   The book revolves around Centac's efforts to build conspiracy
cases against three organizations -- "one led by a wealthy,
homicidal power-obsessed Cuban homosexual named Alberto
Sicilia-Falcon, another by a young American entrepreneur named
Donald Steinberg (a man with criminal operations on four continents
and a daily income greater than U.S. Steel's), and a third
masterminded by a rumpled, retiring -- and murderously ruthless --
Chinese named Lu Hsu-shui . . . whose global power included ties to
a three-thousand man drug army and the intelligence services of at
least three nations."
   YOU'RE GOING to have to get used to superlatives. Mills is
apparently a product of the Sax Rohmer school of writing --"the
largest, most sweeping criminal investigation in history," "the
most menacing criminal groups in the world." There are no ordinary
cops and criminals here. One drug soldier is "a stone cold
diabolical psychotic killer" who moves "with the stealth and skill
of a jungle cat." A stoolie named the Fatman "has the mind of a
fox, the ethics of an alley cat, and the quick-kill instincts of a
rattlesnake." Dealer Lu Hsu-shui is "wary as a cobra" and moves
"with speed and cunning in the twisted passageways of . . ." Mills
looks into the eyes of a Colombian dealer and sees "quietly
revealed a mind educated to cunning, eager to locate deceit, ready
in an instant to murder."
   Sometimes, I have to admit, I get the feeling Mills is
exaggerating, as when he says that a Centac agent, as remarkable as
Mr. Memory in The 39 Steps, "had been digging away at the Steinberg
empire for more than a year, had committed all the investigation's
files to memory. Names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, license
plate numbers, bank account numbers, aircraft registrations, ship
names, corporate histories -- he carried it all in his head."
   I won't give away the conclusions of the three investigations
except to say that Director Dennis Dayle's boast, "We can do
anything," turned out to be wrong. Still, along the way the Centac
chases provide Mills with many good anecdotes, some glossy
profiles, some stuff that, as he admits, is kind of hard to
believe. But when the topic is drugs, who insists on credibility?
   You will like the tunnelling escape from prison in Mexico, and
the Jimmy Valentine opening of a safe in South Florida. If your
taste is People magazine, you will go for the rumors that place a
female federal magistrate in bed with the attorney for drug
merchants. (Is that why she kills cases on technicalities?) And you
will enjoy the slapstick evidence that a drug king's life is not
all Maserati cars and Dom Perignon champagne.
   The bad news is the poundage. It reminds me of that recent New
Yorker cartoon: a publishing house executive, referring to the
mound of manuscript on his desk, says to the author, "I'm sorry we
can't be more encouraging, but allow me to add that you've got a
hell of a lot of book here."
   A good writer/good reporter has been seduced and betrayed by his
own diligence. Mills collected "hundreds of pages of classified
documents, 183 two-hour tape cassettes (these eventually produced
more than 7,000 pages of transcription), and 22 notebooks" -- and
he fell fatally in love with too much of it. After trimming and
discarding tons of stuff, he just didn't have the heart to cut the
remaining ton by 50 percent, which would have left it a first-class
book instead of a chore to get through.
   Robert Sherrill, author of "The Oil Follies of 1970-80: How the
Petroleum Industry Stole the Show and Much More Besides," is at
work on a book about Jimmy Carter. 
    
MOLINA YEPES, Luis Carlos.
Medellin cartel treasurer, renowned dollar launderer and associate
of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, who is wanted by  the  GOC  for issuing
checks that paid for the murder of Guillermo CANO ISAZA,  former
editor of El Espectador newspaper, Bogota.
MOLINA,  Alberto (aka Gilberto MOLINA).    
Trafficker  who  in  January  operated an airplane maintenance
facility at Subachoque,  near Bogota, where helicopters (including
Panamanian registered) were serviced  secretly.    His La Fortuna
ranch nearby had sophisticated warning devices and  was  a drug
distribution center.  Works with RODRIGUEZ GACHA.  In Jan 88 was
arrested on a murder charge.  He was then called the owner of  a 
200  hectare  coca  plantation  in Boyaca.  Charges on narcotics
had been previously dropped.   He is an important emerald mine
owner
and believed to be the winner  along  with Juan BEETAR, and Victor
CARRANZA in the recent struggle to control emerald  operations in
Colombia.  Samin BEETAR, called the "King of  the  Mob"  in 
Cartagena,  was  killed in a shootout with police in February 1987.
MOLINA, Federico.
Board member of Banco Ganadero; worked with Jorge Luis OCHOA
VASQUEZ; also involved in numerous Colombian business syndicates
(Fadegan, the Antioquia livestock federation, and the state-owned
company Vecol).
MONCADA, Geraldo.
Money launderer for the Escobar and Ochoa organizations. Under
indictment in Miami.
MUNERA, Jaime.  
Involved with SANTACRUZ LONDONO and RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA in setting
up Miami-NY operation in late 1970.
MURILLO brothers.  
Medellin money launderers.
NARES, Peter
Writer for the Wall Street Journal.NASSER, Julio.   
Nasser,  along  with the VALDEBLANQUEZ family, are north coast
vessel owners who shipped narcotics to the USA.
NAVARRO  KOURANY,  Marlene. 
Another  "Queen  of  Cocaine",  who  was
responsible for muling $1 million from Miami to Colombia in 1980. 
Believed to be a member of a Barranquilla family  of traffickers. 
After the death of Lara Bonilla a warrant  was  issued  for  her 
arrest  and for apparent trafficking
associates, Carlos ALVAREZ,  Alvaro  BARCENAS  CARDENAS  (the US
requested his extradition in 1985), Mario OCHOA, Jairo RAMIREZ,
Armando TEJADA, Antonio Jose URIBE, and another "cocaine queen"
Carmenza VALENZUELA.
NORIEGA MORENO, Manuel Antonio.


Former Panamanian leader; currently awaiting trial in the United
States on various trafficking related charges.
The New York Times, Friday, September 1, 1989; U.S. Details
Noriega's Drug Ties In New Effort to Force His Ouster; General Is
Said to Aid in Medellin Cartel Shipments by Robert Pear, The New
York Times:
Washington, Aug. 31-In a new effort to turn world opinion against
Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the United States asserted today that
the Panamanian strongman continued to play a major role in the
laundering of drug money and the shipment of narcotics through his
country.
The Bush administration also said the general had built a personal
fortune of $200 million to $300 million, mainly through drug
trafficking and other criminal activities.
But General Noriega once again defied the United States, arranging
for the selection of a new figurehead president, Francisco
Rodriguez. The selection insures that General Noriega, the
Commander in Chief in the Panama Defense Forces since 1983, will
retain power as the de facto leader of Panama.
Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, addressing a
special session of the Organization of American States, presented
a catalogue of evidence to support accusations that General Noriega
had turned Panama into a haven for drug traffickers.
The United States appeared to be taking advantage of the new
concern about drug trafficking caused by the assassinations of
three prominent Colombians who had defied drug traffickers
associated with the Medellin cartel. While denying any plans for
military action to oust General Noriega, American officials said it
would be justified if he continued to give refuge to drug
smugglers.
General Noriega protected cocaine shipments flown from Medellin,
Colombia, through Panama to the Unites States, Mr. Eagleburger
said. Further, he arranged for the transshipment and sale of ether
and acetone to the Medellin cartel. He provided refuge for and a
base for continued operations to the members of the Medellin cartel
after the assassination of the Colombian Minister of Justice,
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, in 1984.
He agreed to protect a cocaine laboratory being constructed in
Darien province, Panama. And he assured the safe passage of
millions of dollars of narcotics proceeds into Panamanian banks. In
return for these services, Noriega received in excess of $4.6
million.
The United States requested the meeting of the organization so it
could respond to a challenge from Panama to present evidence
supporting the accusations against General Noriega.
Some of the evidence was familiar, having been cited in the
indictments of General Noriega by two Federal grand juries last
year. But the estimate of General Noriega's wealth, said by Mr.
Eagleburger to total $200 million to $300 million, and the details
of his links to the Medellin cartel were new.
As part of his presentation, Mr. Eagleburger disclosed a letter
from General Noriega to a London bank ordering the transfer of
$14,936,426 to a bank in Luxembourg. The letter was dated Feb. 8,
1988., three days after the United States indictments were made
public.
Outside the organization's chamber, a diplomat from a Central
American country said there was no smoking gun in the evidence
offered today. But he said the cumulative effect of such evidence
tended to strengthen the United States' case against General
Noriega.
President Bush, on vacation in Kennebunkport, Me., acknowledged
today that he was frustrated with the failures of United States
efforts to drive Noriega from power. But he said he would not
abandon hemispheric diplomacy as a means to achieve that goal.
There's a high frustration level, Mr. Bush said. I'm ready to
concede that. But we are not going to give up on this. We are not
going to permit the will of the people of Panama to be thwarted by
this dictator, especially at a time when the whole hemisphere is
moving down democracy's path.
Mr. Bush also said, I am not going to give up on multilateral
diplomacy. And he asserted that efforts to isolate General Noriega
were succeeding. He said he saw a consensus among major nations
that Noriega ought to get out.
The Panamanian radio announced today that Mr. Rodriguez, an
economist who has been the Comptroller General of Panama for seven
years, would take office as President on Friday.
Elections to choose a new president were held in May, but General
Noriega annulled the elections after independent observers
concluded that he had lost by a margin of about 3 to 1.
A leader of the Panamanian opposition, Ricardo Arias Calderon, said
the new government would be a continuation of the military
dictatorship behind a new facade. Mr. Rodriguez attended high
school with General Noriega and is a longtime friend.
Panama's representative at today's O.A.S session, Jose Maria
Cabrera, said evidence offered by Mr. Eagleburger was nothing but
lies, fabrications and half-truths. He said the United States was
using the 31-nation organization as a platform for a propaganda
campaign against Panama.
Mr. Rodriguez was selected by Panama's Council of State, which is
made up of Cabinet ministers and senior officials from Government
agencies and the armed forces. American officials said the council
was controlled by General Noriega.
The council said that Mr. Rodriguez would be the head of a
provisional government and that the timing of new elections would
depend, in part, on actions by the United States.
Whoever is president of Panama, his term ends Friday under the
Panamanian Constitution. It is not clear who, if anyone, will be
recognized as the lawful ruler of Panama.
UPsw 12/06 1232  Drug witness testifies he gave $300,000 ``gift''
to... Drug witness testifies he gave $300,000 "gift" to Noriega
   LAFAYETTE, La. (UPI) -- A government witness in the drug trial
of 23 defendants has testified he gave a $300,000 "gift" to
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega in 1983 to allegedly start a
money-laundering operation.
   Steven Michael Kalish, a convicted drug smuggler, told the jury
in federal court Tuesday he met Noriega as part of a plan to
launder the profits from the importation of hundreds of thousands
of tons of marijuana.
   Kalish testified he took $2 million in cash to Panama in 1983
"to feel out the situation" with officials of that country.
   He said he met with Cesar Rodriguez and Enrique Pretel, partners
with Noriega in the Servicios Touristicos company, to discuss the
laundering plan.
   At his first meeting with Rodriguez and Pretel, Kalish said an
unidentified military officer told him his private jet was being
watched by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which had contacted
Panamanian officials.
   "I had no idea who this military guy was," Kalish said.
   He told Rodriguez and Pretel he expected to have $100 million to
launder and wanted assurances the money would be protected. The
Panamanians then arranged a meeting with Noriega at the strongman's
home.
   The next day, Kalish testified, he was taken to Noriega's home
where he gave the leader a $300,000 "gift."
   "I am rather impressed that I am in this man's home," he told
the court.
   Noriega agreed to assist the smugglers and an additional $2.5
million was sent to the Bank of Commerce Credit International in
Panama, with Rodriguez, Pretel and a third man splitting a 5
percent commission, Kalish said.
   The importation ring was broken later in 1983 when drug
enforcement officials seized a 200-foot barge near the Louisiana
coast laden with 1 million pounds of marijuana.
   Kalish, 37, was the 70th witness to testify in the trial of the
23 defendants. He testified for the 1 million pound load, $25,000
was pto each member of a group of truckers who also were given
$100,000 for their efforts in helping the Irish Republican Army.
   In another smuggling effort, Kalish said a boat was seized by
the Colombian navy on it way to that country, but was freen members
of the ring paid Colombian officials a bribe of $100,000.
   All of the defendants on trial are linked to the smuggling ring.
APn  12/20 0238  US-Panama Statement 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Here is the text of the statement by White
House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater announced early Wednesday
that President Bush had ordered American troops in Panama to seize
dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega. 
   The president has directed U.S. forces to execute at 1 a.m. this
morning pre-planned missions in Panama to protect American lives,
restore the democratic process, preserve the integrity of the
Panama Canal treaties and apprehend Manuel Noriega
   The situation in Panama under Gen. Noriega has reached a crisis.
Democratic elections have been thwarted; American lives have been
endangered.
   The integrity of the Panama Canal treaties is at risk.
   Gen. Noriega is under indictment for drug-related charges and
the president has made every effort peacefully to resolve the
situation through negotiations under the auspices of the
Organization of American States and Latin American leaders.
   Gen. Noriega has rejected all of these efforts. Last Friday,
Noriega declared a state of war with the United States. The next
day the PDF (Panamanian Defense Forces) shot to death an unarmed
American serviceman, wounded another, seized and beat another
serviceman and sexually threatened his wife.
   Under these circumstances, the president decided he must act to
prevent further violence. Our troops will use only the force
necessary to achieve the objectives and will be withdrawn as
quickly as possible.
   At approximately midnight tonight, the democratically elected
leaders of Panama, President Endara, and vice presidents Calderon
and Ford, were sworn in and assumed their rightful positions. They
welcome and support our actions and have stated their intention to
institute a Democratic government immediately.
   The United States has recognized that government and will
restore normal relations and will cooperate to rebuild a free and
prosperous Panama. 
UPn  12/24 1814  Noriega seeks asylum at Vatican Embassy 
By DOUGLAS TWEEDALE
   PANAMA CITY, Panama (UPI) -- Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the
deposed Panamanian strongman wanted on U.S. drug charges,
surrendered Sunday to the Vatican's diplomatic representative in
Panama and asked for political asylum, church authorities told the
U.S. Southern Command.
   Gen. Maxwell Thurman, head of the U.S. Southern Command and the
top American military officer in Panama, announced the report of
the surrender, but gave no further details. He said he would take
no further action until he received "political instructions" from
Washington.
   "A few minutes ago, we received a report that Mr. Noriega
presented himself at the papal nunciature and turned himself in,"
Thurman said.
   "I am acting on the basis that it is true," the general said.
   The papal nuncio is the Pope John Paul II's ambassador to the
Panamanian government. The Vatican Embassy in Punta Patilla, Panama
City's banking district, enjoys the same protected diplomatic
status as any foreign embassy.
   White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said he did not
know if Noriega will be handed over to American authorities now
policing Panama.
   Fitzwater, speaking for the president, said in a statement:
   "I am pleased that the general is now under the control of
diplomatic authorities. His reign of terror is over.  As we work to
help restore law and order in Panama City, as the government of
President (Guillermo) Endara begins its work, the decision of Gen.
Noriega sends a strong signal that freedom and democracy in Panama
are now on the rise."
   President Bush had said one of the principal goals of the
invasion of Panama by nearly 26,000 U.S. troops was to capture
Noriega and bring him to the United States to face charges of drug
trafficking and racketeering.
   U.S. troops blocked off the area around the nunciature after the
announcement and U.S. soldiers said there was small-arms fire in
the neighborhood.
   "There is small-arms fire going off in the area," said a soldier
holding back the public. "We are`trying to keep people safe by
keeping them away."
   The soldier asked Spanish-speaking reporters to advise onlookers
to stand back because they could be injured if Noriega's Dignity
Battalions launched a mortar or grenade attack.
   Meanwhile, as the news spread in Panama City that Noriega had
sought asylum, citizens poured into the streets, many honking the
horns of their cars and cheering.
   "This is the best Christmas they could have given us," said
Serafina de Gracia who was driving around the city with family.
   "We are very happy," Viovelda de Gracia said.
   It was not imemdiately known how the Vatican would answer
Noriega's request for asylum. The news of the surrender broke less
than an hour before Pope John Paul II's celebration in the Vatican
of Christmas midnight mass and only 12 hours before his scheduled
"Urbi et Orbi" message to Rome and the world on Christmas, the holy
day second only to Easter in significance to most Christians.
   Calls to the Vatican went unanswered late Sunday. Vatican
offices were closed for Christmas and not expected to reopen before
Wednesday.
   Moreover, Vatican diplomats, not known for taking unnecessary
risks on routine matters, were unlikely to comment on the general's
unprecedented request at such a sensitive religious moment.
   The announcement that Noriega had turned himself in came shortly
!fter U.S.-installed President Guillermo Endara, winner of an
election last spring annulled by Noriega, said at a news conference
that he would not extradite the fugitive leader if he "falls into
our power."
   But Endara, speaking at his first news conference since being
sworn in Wednesday, said a newly formed police force was "not
looking for Noriega" and hinted that if U.S. forces captured the
indicted strongman first, he might look the other way.
   "If Noriega falls into our power, we will respect the
constitution and laws," Endara said, adding that the constitution
forbids the extradition of any Panamanian citizens. "I am bound by
the constitution and will respect it.
   "But if he comes into someone else's power, that would be
something else. That would not be extradition."
   In Washington, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, speaking on
ABC-TV's "This Week with David Brinkley" shortly before leaving for
Panama himself, said that if Noriega was captured, his fate would
have to be neogiated with the new Pana-anian government.
   "If he were to be captured in Panama and arrested, I suppose we
would have to sit down and discuss" with the new Panamanian
government whether he would be tried in the United States or
Panama, Cheney said.
      A U.S. military official said before Noriega's appearance at
the Vatican embassy was announced that pro-Noriega forces continued
to offer scattered resistance. He said five Noriega loyalists were
killed and 10 U.S. soldiers wounded in a firefight Saturday night.
The official said 25 Americans had been killed and 281 wounded in
fighting since U.S. forces attacked Panamanian military bases
across the country in the largest U.S. military operation since the
Vietnam war.
   The official said 154 "enemy forces" were killed, 113 wounded
and 2,969 captured or detained after surrendering.
   Cheney said the situation was "steadily improving."
   "Last night, it was quieter than any night so far. We still have
some incidents of shooting. We still have some Dignity Battalions
running in the streets. ... The looting is dying out.
   "We've made significant progress in recruiting former members of
the PDF to be part of the new security force ... more than a
thousand now. The situation does appear to be improving, but it's
not all over yet. There's still a lot of work to do."
   Endara said his government had no figures on how many Panamanian
civilians died as a result of the U.S. attack, but estimated the
toll "in the low hundreds."
   Vice President Ricardo Arias Calderon said members of the Public
Forces of Panama -- created by Endara to replace Noriega's
Panamanian Defense Forces -- would begin joint patrols with U.S.
military police Sunday afternoon to try to restore order to the
capital.
   Armed clashes and looting subsided greatly Sunday and were
replaced by a festive mood in many parts of the capital.
   After Endara's news conference was broadcast on local radio
station, residents in several neighborhoods spontaneously began
banging pots and pans, honking car horns and shouting, "At last we
are free."
   Endara held his news conference in provisional offices he had
set up at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Panama City, surrounded
by dozens of heavily armed U.S. troops.
   U.S. snipers were posted on rooftops around the Foreign Ministry
and both American and Panamanian security officers frisked anyone
entering the area, cordened off by concertina wire.
   Endara said his government had opened the international airport
for the first time since Wednesday to allow flights carrying food
and medicine for thousands of Panamanians left homeless and hungry
by the U.S. invasion and the massive looting which followed and
left most shelves in foo$ stores bare.
   Mercedes Morris, a spokeswoman for the Southern Command, said
two C-130 transport planes carrying food was scheduled to arrive in
Panama Sunday afternoon.
   Endara said Argentina and Costa Rica also planned humanitarian
aid.
   About 2,000 Panamanians whose homes were destroyed in a U.S.
bombing raid on Noriega's military headquarters Wednesday spent
Christmas Eve in a refugee camp run by the U.S. military.
   An estimated 9,000 Panamanians whose homes were destroyed were
put in a makeshift refugee center at Balboa High School, living in
tents and using portable sanitary facilities. 
UPn  01/03 2140  Noriega handed over to United States 
By DOUGLAS TWEEDALE
   PANAMA CITY, Panama (UPI) -- Ousted Panamanian strongman Manuel
Antonio Noriega voluntarily turned himself over to U.S.
authorities, a priest in the Vatican Embassy told United Press
International.
      "At 8:50 p.m. General Noriega left the nunciature and a few
minutes before 9 p.m. got aboard a helicopter that will take him to
Fort Clayton and then to Miami," said Xavier Villanueva, a Roman
Catholic priest at the Vatican mission.
   "He gave himself up," Villanueva said.
      Asked whether Noreiga's departure was a product of
negotations, Villanueva said, "Of course."
   "The church expects that he will be treated humanely and that
there will be no capital punishment for him," Villanueva said.
   Two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters took off about 9 p.m. from a
field adjacent to the Vatican Embassy and headed out across Panama
Bay, presumably with Noriega aboard.
   Sources said Noriega would be taken Wednesday night to Homestead
Air Force Base, some 30 miles south of Miami.
UPn  01/03 2220  Text of Bush's statement on Noriega 
   WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Following is a text of President Bush's
statement regarding the surrender of Panama Gen. Manuel Noriega.
   On Wednesday, Dec. 20 I ordered troops to Panama to meet four
objectives, to safeguard the lives of American citizens, to help
restore democracy, to protect the integrity of the Panama Canal
treaty, and to bring Gen. Manuel Norgiega to justice. All of these
objectives have now been achieved.
   At about 8:50 this evening, Gen. Noriega turned himself into
U.S. authorities in Panama, with the full knowledge of the
Panamanian government. He was taken to Howard Air Force Base in
Panama, where he was arrested by the DEA.
   A U.S. Air Force C-130 is now transporting Gen. Noriega to
Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. He will be arraigned in U.S.
District Court in Miami for charges stemming from his previous
indictment for drug trafficking.
   I want to thank the Vatican, and the papal nuncio in Panama for
their even-handed, statesmanlike assistance in recent days. The
United States is committed to providing Gen. Noriega a fair trial.
Nevertheless, his apprehension and return to the United States
should send a clear signal that the United States is serious in its
determination that those charged with promoting the distribution of
drugs, cannot escape the scrutiny of justice.
   The return of Gen. Noriega marks a significant milestone in
Operation Just Cause. The U.S. used its resources in a manner
consistent with political, diplomatic and moral principles. The
first U.S. combat troops have already been withdrawn from Panama.
Others will follow as quickly as the local situation will permit.
   We are now engaged in the final stages of a process that
includes the economic and political revitalization of this
important friend and neighbor, Panama. An economic team under the
direction of deputy secretary of state (Lawrence) Eagleburger and
(the) deputy secretary of treasury ... is just returning from
Panama. A team of experts has remained on hand there to assess the
full range of needs. We will continue to extend to the Panamanian
people our support and assistance in the days ahead.
   Panamanians and Americans both have sacrificed much to restore
democracy in Panama. The armed forces of the United States have
performed their mission courageously and effectively and I again
want to express my gratitude and appreciation to all of them. And
I want to express the special thanks of our nation to those
servicemen who were wounded and to the families of those who gave
their lives. Their sacrifice has been a noble cause and will never
be forgotten. A free and prosperous Panama will be an enduring
tribute. Thank you all very much. 
 
OCAMPO ORANGO, Hector Fabio.
Money launderer associated with the Banco del Occidente in Cali.
OCAMPO, Jose, AKA  "Pelusa",  or "Caliche".  
Medellin trafficker arrested in the USA.  He had  myriad 
commercial  holdings in Medellin.  Fellow racecar driver along with
Pablo ESCOBAR and  Gustavo  GAVIRIA.  However, is claimed to be an
employee of the  RODRIGUEZ  OREJUELA brothers, leading Fabio
Castillo to write that the  combination  of  individuals  seems  to
"demonstrate that the Colombian Mafia is a single, interacting
organization."
OCANDO PAZ, Francisco.
Worked with Lizardo MARQUEZ PEREZ for ongoing shipments of the
Medellin cartel.
OCHOA RESTREPO, Fabio.



Jorge  Luis'  father.  Daughters include Cristina Maria,  Angela 
Maria  and  Martha   Nieves  Ochoa  Vasquez.    Following  the
assassination of Lara Bonilla in 1985,  Ochoa, along with
RDTORRES ARDILLA, Jorge PEREZ ZAPATA, Luis Alberto URIBE CORREA,
Alonso MOLINO CANOLA, and pilot Leovigildo Cleto CORTES  were  all 
arrested  in  Medellin.    Still active in Medellin cartel
operations in early  1988.    Arrested  by the Army on May 28, 1988
and released two days later for "lack of evidence."
OCHOA SANCHEZ, Arnaldo.
General in Cuban military; involved with Pablo Escobar in
transshipment of cocaine through Cuba; sentenced to death.
HL Castro Retains Strong Grip Despite Military Shake-Up    ---
   BY Julia Preston
   Washington Post Foreign Service
DD        07/11/89
SO        WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 19: A SECTION TX MIAMI --
   After a cataclysmic drug scandal in which four high-ranking
military officers were sentenced to death by firing squads, Cuban
President Fidel Castro appears to have tightened his grip on the
armed forces and reinforced the loyalty of his senior generals.
   Much remains mysterious about the effect of the crisis on Cuba's
normally hermetic military. The government so far has not allowed
American reporters into Cuba to cover the court-martial of a fallen
army hero, Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, and 13 other officers
implicated in running six tons of cocaine to Florida since 1987. A
group of American journalists who happened to arrive in Havana
shortly after Ochoa's June 12 arrest were ordered to leave after a
few days.
   But televised testimony from a military honor tribunal that
Ochoa faced in late June and from last week's separate
court-martial and observers' accounts from Havana suggest that
Castro's 30-year rule emerged quite solid from the trauma.
   The most serious aftereffect Castro may face from the worst
shake-up in the history of his revolution is the political
loneliness of a leader betrayed by one of his most trusted and
rewarded military chiefs.
   On Sunday, Cuba's top government council, led by Castro, turned
down Ochoa's appeal and affirmed his death sentence by firing
squad, the Associated Press reported yesterday. {The 29-member
Council of State unanimously upheld the death sentences against
Ochoa and three other officers. There was no word on when the death
sentences would be carried out or whether Castro could or would
consider executive clemency.}
   Castro himself has stayed carefully out of view, leaving the
initial judgment of the accused to 51 admirals and generals. Most
observers believe the outcome of the trials was set as soon as Gen.
Raul Castro, the defense minister and brother of Fidel, accused
Ochoa of high treason before the tribunal June 26 and demanded
"exemplary punishment." Nevertheless, before Cuban TV cameras, in
a stylized ritual that spread the burden of the verdict among the
47 commanders on the military tribunal, each one stood up to recite
his own reasons for recommending Ochoa's death. "We regarded Ochoa
as an excellent man, a comrade and a charismatic, decisive officer.
We are sad and ashamed that he deceived and betrayed us," said Gen.
Gustavo Chui. "We can tell our people that there may be one general
who is a traitor, but the armed forces' generals will never betray
our country and our commander-in-chief," intoned Gen. Manuel Lastre
Pacheco, referring to Fidel Castro.    "We are all Fidel's sons,"
added Gen. Jesus Bermudez Cutino. Three other generals sat on the
court-martial that finally handed down the death sentence Friday
and another, Justice Minister Juan Escalona, was the prosecutor.  
 Ochoa, in his strangely distant, tired statement to the tribunal,
confessed to all charges against him for trading illicitly in
diamonds, ivory, hardwoods and dollars in Africa and for seeking
contacts with Colombian drug boss Pablo Escobar Gaviria. Ochoa
exonerated the Castro brothers from any knowledge of his deals and
called for his own execution. "I promise you my last thoughts will
be with Fidel," he pledged. Many hours of these show trials were
broadcast on Cuban television, and in a nation where the press
usually carries little lively information, the coverage reportedly
kept Cubans riveted to their screens.
   The scandal opened the way for Castro to oversee a purge at the
Interior Ministry, the vast security and intelligence agency where
one of the convicted men, former colonel Antonio de la Guardia
Font, centered his cocaine-running. The Interior Ministry over the
years had developed a somewhat autonomous staff and mystique as
Raul Castro concentrated on running the army.
   Gen. Abelardo Colome Ibarra was named to replace fired minister
Gen. Jose Abrahantes Fernandez. Colome is a Politburo member and
one of only five officers to have been named, like Ochoa, a Hero of
the Republic. Colome, who joined the Castros in 1957 when they were
still guerrillas, is now believed to be Cuba's third-highest
ranking power figure.
   Generals close to the Castros also replaced fired officials at
the Civil Aeronautics Institute and the Transportation Ministry.
   The high-level government changes seem to have strengthened
Castro's hand, allowing him to come down hard on government
corruption. He has said he will pursue his brand of austere,
collectivist communism, rejecting reforms toward a more liberal
economy.
   The signs are that Washington can from now on expect firm, even
draconian Cuban action against drug traffickers. Ironically, one of
the main charges on which Ochoa was convicted was "hostile acts
against a foreign nation," for helping send drugs to Florida. A
July 3 editorial in the Communist Party newspaper Granma berated
the United States for not informing Havana earlier about the drug
smuggling. "They could have avoided shipments of several tons of
drugs to the United States," the editorial said. @CAPTION: Former
General Ochoa is seen on television after he was sentenced to death
for drug trafficking.    ART:ph  afp
OCHOA VASQUEZ, Fabio.


Cocaine production organizer.  Lived for a time in Miami in the
1970s.    Youngest  of  the  Ochoas.    Involved in the murder of
informant Barry Seal during Jorge Luis' incarceration in Spain.
OCHOA  VASQUEZ,  Jorge  Luis (aka MoisŽs Moreno Miranda in Spain;
aka El Gordo [the fat man]).    


Took  over  what  was basically a family operation in  1976  after 
the  fall  of  Fabio  RESTREPO  OCHOA.    Fabio was interested in
horses  only  and  a  sister,  Angela  Maria  OCHOA VASQUEZ, was
arrested for muling in Miami in October  1977.   Starting at least
in 1978 his Miami contact was Rafael CARDONA SALAZAR.  Shortly
thereafter he began to work with  Pablo  ESCOBAR  GAVIRIA, 
although  the  two  organizations  were formed separately.
Threatened  with  extradition  after  April  30,  1984  he 
fostered  the assassination of Justice  Minister  Rodrigo  Lara 
Bonilla.    He then fled to Panama where he and Pablo ESCOBAR  met
with former Colombian President Alfonso Lopes Michelson at which
time they offered to trade their fortunes for amnesty from
extradition to the USA.  President Belisario Betancur refused. 
Ochoa was wanted in the US  for  conspire  to  import  HCL through
Nicaragua, along with Sandanista, Federico VAUGHAN, aide  to 
Sandanista  Minister of Interior Tomas Borge, and he was indicted
in the US in November 1986 (he is under indictment in Miami and
Atlanta).  Ochoa was the Medellin cartel coordinator for sales in 
the  US  and  Western  Europe.  He claimed he shipped out an
average of 6 MT HCL/mo.  from the early 80s until his arrest in
Spain in 1984.  Left  Colombia  following  the assassination of
Lara Bonilla, and at first thought to be hiding out in Mexico.
His sister, Martha Nieves  OCHOA  VASQUEZ  was  kidnapped by a M-19
group that had previously kidnapped a  son  of Severo ESCOBAR
ORTEGA; however, after being threatened  with  reprisals,  the 
revolutionaries  gave  her  up.   The kidnapping led to the
formation  of  the "secuestrables", and the 1982 attacks on the
M-19 effected in essence the  creation of a stronger association if
not a cartel united the  major  Medellin  capos.    Ochoa  had a
major property at Repelon, Atlantico and Acandi in  Uruba,  Choco,
from where drugs were shipped to the USA.  He was also  part  owner
of the ill-fated Banco Ganadero where he was represented  on  the 
board  by  Federico  MOLINA.    Molina  was also his surrogate on
the board of Fadegan, the Antioquia livestock federation, and the
state-owned company Vecol.    Jorge  Luis  has  been  called  one
of worlds 20 richest people  with  estimated  worth  of  2-3 
billion  according  to Forbes Magazine article in 1987.
In early 1988 an unknown entity  calling itself the Anti-Mafia
Command of Carlos Mauro Hoyos,  claimed  that  is  was  going 
after the ranking Medellin cartel members headed by  the  OCHOAs. 
  Included  in the list were RODRIGUEZ GACHA, Jairo MEJIA, Elkin
CANO, Mara OSPINA, Gustavo GAVIRIA, and the CARDENAS brothers.
Jorge Luis and two brothers have been indicted by a federal grand
jury in Miami.
By News Services
Spain Extradites
Cocaine Suspect
07/14/86
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 18: A SECTION TX           MADRID --
Jorge Ochoa Vasquez, wanted by the United States on drug
trafficking charges, was extradited by Spain to his native Colombia
yesterday, police sources at Madrid's airport           said.
   Ochoa Vasquez, 36, was arrested in Madrid in 1984 at U.S.
request. The Colombian request was made a year later, The
Associated Press reported.
   Both countries sought his extradition on charges he was a member
of an international cocaine-trafficking ring. A Spanish court ruled
that he should be extradited to Colombia because it was his native
country. The government wanted to extradite him to the United
States.
   A Miami grand jury accused Ochoa Vasquez of involvement in a
cocaine smuggling scheme in which a man identified as an aide to
Nicaragua's interior minister allegedly took part. U.S. Attorney
Richard Gregorie said in Miami that he was           pleased by the
extradition and "the United States will immediately move to have
him extradited from Colombia to Miami."
   Meanwhile, Spanish news agencies said two Lebanese Shiite
Moslems convicted of shooting a Libyan diplomat in Spain have been
pardoned by the government and will be returned to Beirut. Their
freedom was demanded by Shiites who kidnaped three Spanish
officials in Beirut Jan. 17 and held them for a month.

Colombian Dealer Freed
08/17/86
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 23: A SECTION TX           BOGOTA,
Colombia -- Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, reputed kingpin of one of the
world's largest cocaine cartels, was freed from jail last week
despite American attempts to bring him to the United States for
trial, officials in Colombia said.
   Justice authorities said Ochoa Vasquez dropped out of sight
Wednesday after receiving a suspended sentence on charges of
falsifying documents for the import of fighting bulls from Spain.
   There were contradictory reports of the court decision in his
case. It is believed he received a suspended sentence of either 20
or 24 months and was ordered to pay a fine. Ochoa Vasquez, 36, is
wanted by the United States on charges in connection with the
smuggling of 1,452 pounds of cocaine to Florida via Nicaragua. He
also is an unindicted coconspirator in the Feb. 19 murder of Barry
Seal of Baton Rouge, La., a pilot who was reportedly ready to
testify against the Ochoa Vasquez gang.

Colombian Judge in Drug Case Fired
            
From News Services and Staff Reports
01/20/88
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 19: A SECTION TX           BOGOTA 
Colombia --
   A federal court said it had fired the judge who issued an order
last month freeing an alleged cocaine baron the United States has
been trying to extradite.
 A federal superior court in Bogota announced that it had removed
Andres Montanez, a criminal court judge who signed the order Dec.
31 releasing Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez from La Picota prison, where
he was serving a 20-month sentence.
UPn  11/25 1549  Drug czars were prepared for flight
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Top drug chieftains Pablo Escobar and
Jorge Luis Ochoa had apparently planned an escape before police
raided their ranch hideout last week, with trails cut through the
dense jungle and clothing and radios stashed at nearby cabins.
   The drug lords, both wanted for extradition to the United
States, escaped in their underwear Thursday morning when army and
police forces raided Escobar's ranch in the Magdalena valley, 90
miles north of the capital.    But the two were able to pick up
sweatsuits and two-way radios stashed at nearby cabins, and
disappeared into the jungle following a series of pathways.   
"They are walking fearfully on foot," an unidentified general told
reporters Friday at the ranch. "They are nervous, and that's why
they previously planned their escape."
   Troops aided by trained attack dogs searched the extensive
footpaths in the area, reportedly cut to facilitate the fugitives'
escape.    Brigades set up checkpoints along the Magdalena, Oro and
Corcorna rivers, and helicopters combed the region from the air,
Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported.    The police brought about 50
journalists Friday to the seized ranch, where two of the drug
czars' bodyguards were killed and 55 ranch workers were captured in
Thursday's assault.
   In Escobar's ranch house, authorities found plans for attacks
against the government and petroleum industry as well as documents
offering $2.5 million for the assassination of two police
commanders, El Tiempo reported.    Police did not identify the two
threatened commanders.    Authorities also found signs around the
ranch house that said, "Extradition is Violence," and "No
Extradition is Peace."
   The Colombian cocaine cartels began a massive bombing spree in
August to halt planned extraditions of wanted traffickers to the
United States. The more than 250 bombings have left at least 35
people dead and some $18 million in damage.    Police also found a
wanted poster offering $1.25 million for Cali cartel boss Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela, leading them to believe the powerful Medellin
cartel, led by Escobar, Jose Rodriguez Gacha, and the three Ochoa
brothers may be at war with the rival cartel, Bogota newspaper El
Espectador reported.    The Medellin and Cali cartels allegedly
supply 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States.
   The latest raid is the closest police have come to nabbing a
leading drug trafficker since the government launched an all-out
offensive on the cocaine cartels in August following a string of
drug-related assassinations.
   Escobar is wanted on drug trafficking charges in Louisiana,
Florida and Colorado, and Jorge Luis Ochoa is accused of drug
smuggling by Florida and Georgia courts.
   Eight Colombians have been sent to the United States to face
drug charges since President Virgilio Barco re-established
extradition on Aug. 18.    In the past three months forces have
arrested thousands of suspects, seized tons of cocaine and raided
hundreds of narcotics laboratories and kingpin properties, but so
far the top leaders have eluded capture.
OCHOA VASQUEZ,  Juan  David.


Administers  property  and  is in charge of personnel used by the
OCHOA FAMILY including:
ARANGO JARAMILLO,  a  journalist  with  links  to  M-19  and  in
the government.
BARRERA DOMINGUEZ, Dr. Humberto, a University Professor.
CAICEDO PERDOMO, a lawyer  who  defends narcoguerrillas and has
good contacts in Communist Party.
MEZA VALESQUEZ, Luis E. of the Fiscalia General
MONTANES, Dr Andres, a very important contact
PEREZ, Luis C., who maintains  contacts  in the Colombian police
and DAS, and in the Colombian Attny Gens office.
RUIZ, Dr.  Servio  Tulio,  who  has  contacts  in  the  Armed
Forces command.
OCHOA VASQUEZ, Martha Nieves.
Daughter of Fabio OCHOA RESTREPO and sister of Jorge Luis, Juan
David and Fabio OCHOA VASQUEZ; was  kidnapped by a M-19 group that
had previously kidnapped a  son  of Severo ESCOBAR ORTEGA; however,
after being threatened  with  reprisals,  the  revolutionaries 
gave  her  up.   The kidnapping led to the formation  of  the
"secuestrables", and the 1982 attacks on the M-19 effected in
essence the  creation of a stronger association if not a cartel
united the  major  Medellin  capos.
OREJUELA CABALLERO, Jaime Raul.
Indicted in New York in 1985 for drug trafficking.
ORTEGA RAMIREZ, Jairo. 
Congressman from Antioquio.  His alternate in the Liberal Renewal
Movement is Pablo ESCOBAR.
OSPINA BARAYA, Javier, Rodolfo,  Mariano.  
Apparently the first Antioquia family to ship HCL in  cut  flower 
boxes. Mariano was arrested in Miami in September 1984 for money
laundering.   Rodolfo  was sentenced to 33 months for smuggling in
1985.  The family  was  involved in a famous feud with trafficker
Jose Ramon MATTA BALLESTEROS.  A  June  1987 meeting with the
Honduran and the two brothers present along with matriarch Bertha
Hernandez de OSPINA PEREZ was a classic confronting.  The warring
parties did not resolve issues which arose over the Ospina efforts
to grab Matta  property while the Honduran was in jail in Colombia. 
 Thus,  the  OSPINA  BARAYA  decided  to make themselves scarce.
Other  members  of  the  family  involved  in  trafficking 
apparently include Fernando OSPINA HERNANDEZ and Bertha OSPINA
DUQUE, Colombian Consul in Boston.
PABON JETTER, Said Alberto and  Nayib  Ricardo.  
Convicted in the USA for narcotics trafficking.  Worked  with  the 
Severo ESCOBAR ORTEGA organization. Wanted by the  GOC  following 
the  death  of  Justice  Minister Lara Bonilla.
Captured in May 1984.
PALMA MOLINA, Manuel.
Suspected money launderer.
APn  10/11 2001  US-Colombia
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department said Wednesday that
two Colombians wanted on federal drug charges were under arrest in
Colombia where they were being held pending U.S. extradition
requests.
   Earlier Wednesday, Colombian police arrested Jose Rafael Abello
Silva, 35, a member of the Medellin cartel wanted on U.S. charges
of conspiring to ship 500 kilograms of cocaine into this country,
said Justice Department spokeswoman Harri J. Kramer.
   A federal grand jury in Tulsa, Okla., indicted Abello in 1987 on
charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.
   The State Department was serving the Colombian authorities with
a request that Abello and another suspect arrested Wednesday,
Manuel Palma, to be held under the provisional-detention section of
President Virgilio Barcos' extradition regulations, Kramer said.
   Palma is wanted by federal authorities in Miami on charges of
interstate travel in aid of racketeering in connection with an
operation to launder drug money, Kramer said.

APn  11/18 0925  Colombian Extraditions
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   MIAMI (AP) -- Two drug suspects facing federal indictments in
the United States were extradited from Colombia today as part of a
continuing crackdown on drug trafficking in the South American
nation, authorities said.    The U.S. Marshals Service took the
pair into custody in Bogota, Colombia, late Friday and transported
them by jet to Miami early today.    Manuel Palma, 49, a Colombian
native, was named in a Miami indictment issued April 17, 1987,
charging him with drug trafficking and money laundering, said a
news release from the Marshals Service in Washington.    Robert
James Sokol, 29, was flown on to Greensboro, N.C., to face a
narcotics conspiracy indictment issued Nov. 26, 1984, the release
said.    The indictments are part of a campaign started in August
by the Colombian government to attack the powerful drug cartels
operating the world's cocaine trade. The cartels responded with a
campaign of violence that has led to widespread bombings and
attacks on government officials and journalists.    So far, none of
the people extradited to the United States has been among the dozen
major traffickers sought by federal officials. 
PATINO ZAMBRANO, Jose.  
A Cali cartel member.  Once considered one of the biggest cocaine
dealers in New York, and in  1979 he was held in New York City on
$1 million bail and charged  with  being  head of a major cocaine
smuggling ring.  Other Patino from Cali are also involved in
trafficking.
PEAR, Robert.
Reporter for the New York Times.Pelaez Roldan, Bernardo.
Medellin trafficker and money launderer. Extradited to the US on
October 14, 1989.
UPn  10/14 1700  Colombia deports three suspected drug dealers
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- The Colombian government extradicted
three accused drug traffickers, including a key figure in the
notorious Medellin gang, to the United States Saturday, defying
long-standing threats of violent retaliation by the nation's
powerful cocaine cartels.
   Police said the three were placed on a special aircraft provided
by the U.S. government and were secretly flown out of Colombia
before dawn Saturday. They arrived in Miami a few hours later and
were taken into custody by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents.
   The three accused traffickers, Ana Elena Rodriguez Tamayo,
Bernardo Pelaez Roldan, and Roberto Peter Carlini, are all wanted
for smuggling cocaine from Colombia to the United States and for
drug money laundering.
   In Washington, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh issued a
statement praising the Colombian government for assisting in the
extraditions.
   "I commend (Colombian) President Virgilio Barco and the
government of Colombia for their continued diligence in the war
against narco-terrorists," Thornburgh said.
   "The Colombian people are setting an example for the world as
they continue to extradict international drug traffickers in the
face of continued threats andacts of intimidation," he said.
   Pelaez, described by a U.S. government attorney as "one of the
most significant players in the Medellin cartel," is wanted in
Detroit and was transported to Michigan upon arrival in the United
States.
   Pelaez, who was captured in September in Bogota, was convicted
by a federal judge in absentia five years ago for his part in a
drug ring that conspired to possess more than 600 pounds of
cocaine.
   Rodriguez, also a member of the Medellin cartel, was arrested
Aug. 23 in the resort town of Cartegena. Carlini, the son of
Italian immigrants, was captured in the same town a week later.
   Carlini was later taken to Orlando, Fla., where state prosecutor
Pete Antonacci praised the Colombian government's action.
   "I am very pleased the Colombian government has done this. It is
a very good first step," he said, adding that his office has given
Colombian authorities a list of 20 others sought for trial in
Florida.
   Carlini faces a total of 115 years in prison on state charges
involving more than a ton of cocaine.
   Colombia has extradited one other alleged drug figure to face
trial in the United States since it launched its war on the drug
lords Aug. 18. Eduardo Martinez Romero was flown Sept. 6 to
Atlanta, where he faces drug trafficking and money laundering
charges.
   The Colombian government Friday deported a Canadian citizen who
was wanted in his homeland on cocaine trafficking charges. Richard
Houle, a Canadian captured Wednesday in Cartagena, was put aboard
an aircraft to Montreal.
   The country's powerful cocaine cartels have repeatedly warned
the government that it would retaliate with violence, including
murders and bombings, if an extradition treaty with the United
States is enforced.
   The most specific threats have been directed toward judges and
other members of the legal commuity.
   Two weeks ago, the Colombian high court declared extradition
legal under the Colombian constitution. Extradition and
confiscation of wealth accumulated by the drug barons form the
backbone of Colombia's campaign against the cartels.
   Colombia extradited 14 of its citizens to the United States
between 1980 and 1987 before the high court threw out the
extradition treaty on a technicality.
   Police said they scored another modest success in the drug war
by confiscating 300 pounds of cocaine paste and arresting seven
people in a raid on a clandestine laboratory south of Bogota.
   According to authorities, the laboratory produced about 200
pounds of cocaine each week.
   Also Friday, well-known Colombian political journalist William
Bendeck Olivella was gunned down in front of his home in Monteria,
300 miles north of Bogota, police said.
   Bendeck Olivella was chief editor of the radio commentary
program Avanzada. Police said it was unclear if his murder was drug
related and no suspects have been captured.
UPce 10/15 1413  Colombian drug lord extradited to Detroit
   DETROIT (UPI) -- Authorities lauded the Colombian government
Sunday for extraditing a key figure in the notorious Medellin drug
cartel back to Detroit for sentencing on a federal drug conviction.
   Benardo Pelaez Roldan, 44, was one of three accused drug
traffickers extradited Saturday to the United States. He was joined
by Ana Elena Rodriguez Tamayo and Roberto Peter Carlini who were
both returned to Florida.
   "This is a major victory in bringing a leading participant in
the Colombian drug cartels to justice," said Stephen Markman --
U.S. Atoorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
   Pelaez was one of 28 people indicted in November 1983 on charges
they belonged to a drug-peddling ring. During the first week of his
trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit, he vanished while free on
$200,000 bond.
   The trial continued and Pelaez was convicted in absentia in
March 1984. Police said that from 1975-83, he sold more than 600
pounds of cocaine, receiving about $6 million.
   Pelaez was captured last month in Bogota but his extradition was
delayed until Colombia's Supreme Court upheld extraditions to the
United States two weeks ago.
   Federal authorities delivered Pelaez to Detroit late Saturday.
He was rushed to the federal prison in Milan under heavy guard by
U.S. Marshals.
   It was not clear when Pelaez would be sentenced.
   In Washington Saturday, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh issued
a statement praising the Colombian government for assisting in the
extraditions.
   "I commend (Colombian) President Virgilio Barco and the
government of Colombia for their continued diligence in the war
against narco-terrorists," Thornburgh said.
   "The Colombian people are setting an example for the world as
they continue to extradict international drug traffickers in the
face of continued threats and acts of intimidation," he said.
UPn  11/07 1312  Extradited Colombian gets 15 years on 1984
conviction 
By JAMES R. CAMPBELL
   DETROIT (UPI) -- A recently extradited Colombian drug figure was
sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for a 1984 drug conviction
linked to the notorious Medellin cartel.
   U.S. District Judge Ralph M. Freeman imposed the sentence on
Bernardo Palaez, 44, who fled to Colombia during his trial.
   He took under under advisment a motion to free Palaez on grounds
his extradition was illegal and denied another motion to give him
credit for time served since his original arrest in Miami in 1983. 
  Palaez, one of 28 people named in a November 1983 indictment in
the international drug conspiracy, was free on $200,000 bond when
he disappeared during the first week of his 18-day trial before
Freeman. The judge convicted him in absentia of one count of
conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.
   Attorney Richard Lustig, calling Paleaz "a pawn" of two
governments, said he would appeal. He said the Colombian Supreme
Court ruled in September 1987 the treaty under which his client's
extradition was requested did not apply.    "They kidnapped him,"
Lustig told reporters.
   Security was tight for the sentencing. A city police car blocked
a key street in downtown Detroit as eight state police vehicles,
including an armored car, escorted Pelaez into the basement of the
federal courthouse.    The bearded, slight Palaez winked at his
wife, Elisa, as he entered the courtroom wearing tan slacks, a
brown checkered sport coat and running shoes.    Palaez' wife said
she was surprised at the severity of the sentence, including a
$25,000 fine, and said she would return soon to Colombia where the
couple's son, Andres, is a high school student.
   "I'm going to go back," she said. "My son is there. He is only
16."    The indictment said Palaez belonged to a drug ring said to
have conspired to possess more than 300 kilograms of cocaine, which
was sold for more than $6 million in 1981 and 1982.
   U.S. Attorney Stephen Markman, who described Palaez as "one of
the most significant players in the Medellin cartel," recommended
the maximum sentence. He also urged the judge not to delay
sentencing because "the defendant has had over five years to
prepare for this day."
   Lustig, however, said Palaez has been selling cars since he left
the United States. He said if Palaez had been a cartel member he
would not have spent 21 months in jail in Colombia before that
country's Supreme Court threw out the U.S.-Colombian extradition
treaty in 1987.
   Freeman gave the government until Nov. 22 to respond to Lustig's
motion to free Palaez and gave the defense until Nov. 30 to reply
to that. He said he wanted the decision by the Colombian Supreme
Court translated into English.    Lustig said Palaez, who according
to testimony was a minor figure who picked up money in the original
case, was given to the United States as appeasement by the
Colombian government.
   "I think without a doubt that he has been used as a pawn by both
governments," Lustig said.
   He called the heavy security part of a government attempt to
"hysterically show" that Palaez is more dangerous than he actually
is.    Palaez was the third accused drug trafficker sent to the
United States since Colombian President Virgilio revived
extraditions in launching a war on drug lords Aug. 18. He was being
held at the federal penitentiary in Milan, Mich. 
IEDRAHITA TABARES, Carlos  Octavio,  also uses surname Martin
Elias, and brothers Octavio, Orlando,  Mario  and  Javier  Alonso. 
  
Carlos Octavio is associated with the Medellin cartel; he began  as 
a  forger  and  embezzler  and  moved  to  narcotics trafficking in
Pereira.  He  is  now  owner of various sports groups including the
bullring in  Medellin,  and  the  Atletico  Nacional and Deportivo
Pereira sports clubs.  In 1982, the were  involved  in  a  shipment
of 1 ton of HCL to Tampa which  apparently  was  to  be  received 
by  Colombian trafficker mario Espinoza, son of Conrado ESPINOZA. 
 It  is said that the Piedrahita are often at war with others in
Medellin, and  Carlos was  wounded apparently in 1986 in gang
warfare.  Mario & Javier have been killed.  In 1987 Carlos was
kidnapped and held for a few days  apparently  as  a  warning  for
him to cease his wild ways.  In 1984 Piedrahita was involved  with
Isaac KATTAN KASSIN (who was also involved with Pablo  ESCOBAR)  in 
a  USA  drug  laundering  scam.  Kassin was responsible for moving
drug money from New York City to Miami in the 1970s and was then
the so-called Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer for traffickers.  He
was sentenced to 30 years in jail in the USA in 1982. Other
Piedrahita who are  involved  in trafficking include Juan Francisco
PEREZ PIEDRAHITA, who was a member of the ESCOBAR GAVIRIA group.
PINEDO BARROS, Miguel.    
North  coast trafficker whose son Miguel PINEDO VIDAL (or vice
versa?) is  a  congressman  from  Magdalena who was involved in
trafficking and smuggling in the mid-1970s.
PINEDO VIDAL, Miguel.
Son of trafficker Miguel PINEDO BARROS. Congressman from La Guajira
and protector of traffickers; arranged the release of Jose Rafael
ABELLO SILVA after his capture in Barranquilla in January 1987.
PIZARRO, Carlos.
Key figure in the M-19 terrorist organization.
 THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
                       Copyright Times Mirror Company 1989
 DATE: SUNDAY    October 8, 1989
 EDITION: Southland Edition                   LENGTH: SHORT 
PART-NAME: ONE                               PAGE: 2  PART-NUMBER:
1                               COLUMN: 1  TYPE-OF-MATERIAL: Brief
 DESK: Foreign
                                   THE WORLD
     Carlos Pizarro, leader of Colombia's leftist M-19 guerrillas
and once its  most-wanted criminal, is to be the group's
presidential candidate in next  year's elections. Pizarro, 38, was
nominated to represent the group in the May  presidential vote,
M-19 said in a statement from its mountain headquarters of  Santo
Domingo, an Andean village in southwestern Colombia. M-19 has
agreed to  lay down its arms and form a political party, two of the
steps suggested in a  peace accord signed with the government. The
group has operated underground  following its failed takeover of
Bogota's Palace of Justice in November, 1985, in which 95 people,
including 11 Supreme Court justices, were killed.  
                           

 

PORRAS ARDILA, Evaristo.  
Considered to be a major trafficker.  He was  captured  in  1982 
while  trying  to move a large cocaine shipment from Colombia to
Peru.    He escaped from Carrion Hospital in Callao and made his
way to Colombia.    In Colombia he was a key trafficker in the
movement of Peruvian base/paste  to  Colombia through his base at
Leticia. Following the death of  the  El  Espectador  editor,  he
was arrested in January 1987 on San Andres  Island  where  he  had
purchased in 1985 the Hotel Bahia Marina on San Andres.  In 
February 1987 the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru requested his
extradition.    He was, however, released by a military tribunal in
March 1987 in spite of an outstanding extradition request from
Peru.  Although  usually  tied  to  the Medellin cartel, also
worked with US citizen Mike TSALICKIS  of  the  Cali cartel in the
movement of major shipments of cocaine from Leticia,  Colombia to
Florida.  He apparently suffered business reverses and had  many 
debts  in Leticia and elsewhere.  He was selling off some of  his 
properties  and  the Tsalickis shipment may have been of great
importance.   He  is  charged  with  the murder of El Espectador
correspondent in Leticia, and as  local  politician in Leticia, he
founded his own party, the Liberal House of Amazonas.   He was also
involved in laundering narcodollars through the Banco Ganadero of
Leticia.
Bogota Plans New Drug Extradition
From News Services and Staff Reports
10/01/89
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 25: A SECTION TX
   BOGOTA  Colombia -- Colombia's Justice Ministry informed drug
trafficking suspect Ana Helena Rodriguez that she will be the
second prisoner to be extradited to the United States, the
Colombian aily El Tiempo reported yesterday. Meanwhile, Ecuadoran
police said they had arrested a leading Colombian drug trafficker,
Evaristo Porras Ardila, and would extradite him to Colombia after
an investigation.
   Colombian police said five people were injured in seven bombings
blamed on drug barons in the capital and the western city of Cali.
La Opinion, Sunday, October 1, 1989: Capturan en Ecuador a un
cabecilla del narcotr‡fico; Associated Press:
BOGOTA, 30 de septiembre (AP).-Evaristo Porras Ardila, uno de los
cabecillas del narcotr‡fico en Colombia, fue capturado en Ecuador,
mientras en Colombia el Gobierno orden— la segunda extradici—n,
esta vez de una mujer vinculada al Cartel de Medell’n, y las
brigadas terroristas hicieron explotar ocho bombas, segœn informes
oficiales.
Porras Ardila, solicitado en extradici—n por Perœ in en donde est‡
acusado de fuga de una prisi—n y por delitos relacionados con el
narcotr‡fico, fue capturado el jueves pasado en Tulc‡n, ciudad
ecuatoriana de la frontera con Colombia, dijeron fuentes del
Gobierno ecuatoriano en Quito.
Porras Ardila, cuyo imperio se hab’a concentrado en la zona
amaz—nica que cubre territorios de Colombia, Brasil y Perœ, fue
capturado durante un allanamiento ejecutado a una residencia de
Tulc‡n por la Polic’a ecuatoriana y su identidad fue confirmada por
la Polic’a antinarc—ticos de Colombia.
El presunto narcotraficante estuvo dos veces arrestado en Colombia
acusado de porte illegal de armas, pero logr— su libertad de jueces
cuya conducta fue posteriormente investigada y uno de los cuales
fue destitudo. TambiŽn fue acusado de haber participado en la
conspiraci—n para asesinar al director del diario El Espectador,
Guillermo Cano. La Polic’a colombiana lo considera uno de los ocho
principales cabecillas del narcotr‡fico y aliado clave del Cartel
de la coca’na de Medell’n.
Porras Ardila es hasta ahora el œnico narcotraficante importante
capturado desde que el Gobierno colombiano lanz— una ofensiva total
contra las bandas de narcotraficantes el 18 de agosto pasado. Sin
embargo, el presidente Virgilio Barco anunci— esta semana que los
cabecillas del Cartel de la coca’na de Medell’n, Pablo Escobar
Gaviria y Gonzalo Rodr’guez Gacha est‡n cercados y su captura se
considera muy probable.
Entretanto, el ministero de Justicia aprob— la extradici—n a los
Estados Unidos de Ana Elena Rodr’guez Zu–iga, quien est‡ acusada de
tr‡fico de coca’na y lavado de dinero de la droga, segœn informa
hoy el diario El Tiempo.
Rodr’guez Zu–iga podr’a ser enviada la pr—xima semana a los Estados
Unidos si el Gobierno rechaza la apelaci—n de la resoluci—n que le
fue notificada ayer.
El Gobierno colombiano restableci— la extradici—n el 18 de agosto
pasado inmediamente despuŽs del asesinado del l’der liberal Luis
Carlos Gal‡n, utilizado los poderes extraordinarios del estadio de
sitio. Hasta ahora s—lo se ha extraditado a Eduardo Mart’nez
Romero, quien esta acusado en los Estados Unidos del lavado de
1,000 milliones de dolares.
El restablecimiento de la extradici—n y la exprobaci—n de las
fortunas de los narcotraficantes desat— la guerra total de los
carteles de droga que est‡n ejecutando diariamente atentados
terroristas.
Entre anoche y esta madrugada estallaron ocho bombas-seis en Bogot‡
y dos en Cali-que causaron heridas a cinco personas y extensos
da–os materiales, inform— la Polic’a.
En Bogot‡ los terroristas atacaron cuatro establimientos
educativos, entre ellos una escuela de ni–as en donde dos peque–as
estudiantes resultaron heridas, inform— la Polic’a. TambiŽn
colocaron de un banco y otra en una oficina postal.
En Cali, la principal ciudad del Occidente de Colombia, fueron
atacados con bombas dos centros comerciales y se registraron dos
heridos. Los da–os materiales fueron estimados en unos 100
milliones de pesos (247,000 d—lares), inform— la Polic’a local.
Desde el 23 agosto hasta hoy se han registrado 126 atendados
dinamiteros e incendiarios en los cuales murieron diez personas,
148 heridos y pŽrdidas materiales superiores a los seis milliones
de d—lares.

PORRAS ARDILA, Henry and Alvaro.
Brothers of Evaristo Porras Ardilla; considered to be major
traffickers.PRADO, Adriana.  
Along  with  Jorge  OCHOA controlled stash houses in the
Miami region in the early 1980s.
PRESTON, Julia.
Washington Post journalist.
PRETEL, Enrique.
Involved in Servicios Touristicos money laundering scheme with
Cesar Rodriguez.
QUINON, Jose.
Jacksonville, Florida, lawyer for Luis Arce Gomez.
QUINTERO CRUZ, Luis Carlos.
Medellin triggerman currently serving a life sentence for the
assassination of Barry SEAL.
RALDA, Erick Alfredo.
Guatemalan businessman linked to Medellin cartel; arrested in
Guatemala city on October 14, 1989.
UPn  10/14 0345  Executive linked to Medellin cocaine cartel is
arre... 
Executive linked to Medellin cocaine cartel is arrested  By RAUL
VILLATORO
   GUATEMALA CITY (UPI) -- A Guatemalan business executive linked
to Colombia's Medellin notorious cocaine cartel has been arrested,
and police searched for three other suspects in what has become a
transit point for cocaine smuggled from South America to the United
States, authorities said Friday.    Col. Giovanni Valerio Cardenas,
director of Guatemala's National Police, identified the executive,
arrested Thursday after a year's investigation, as Erick Alfredo
Ralda, 33, administrative head of the country's Industrial Chamber.
   The suspect was apprehended on his way to deliver 273 grams of
cocaine to his Colombian contact, an alleged member of the South
American nation's infamous Medellin cocaine cartel, which has been
responsible for most of the cocaine smuggled into the United
States, police said.
   "It has been a hard blow to drug trafficking, especially the
Medellin cartel," Valerio said of the arrest.
   Recent news reports have indicated several members of the
Medellin cartel have shifted operations to Guatemala because of a
recent crackdown on drug lords by the Colombian government.
   Valerio said Ralda dodged a security force at first, but was
finally detained, while the Colombian contact managed to escape.  
 Three other Guatemalan businessmen were at large. Their names were
not revealed.
   "We are looking for at least three (more) important businessmen
of our country who are implicated in drug trafficking," Valerio
said. "These are three important members of an international
network of drug traffickers and are people of Guatelmalan high
society and include known businessmen who have been watched since
a year ago."
   Valerio said that, on Thursday, police also arrested a Colombian
citizen, identified as Oscar Abel Perez Alban, 34, allegedly while
he was trying to sell 32 grams of cocaine in downtown Guatemala
City.
   He said Perez Alban had apparently arrived in Guatemala only a
few days earlier by plane and had been due to go on to the United
States. 
RANGE, Peter Ross.
Journalist with the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report.
RASHBAUM, William K.
Journalist with UPI (United Press International).RAVIV, Dan.
Washington Post and CBS journalist.RECKARD, E. Scott.
AP journalist.
RESTREPO OCHOA,  Fabio.    
Early  founder  of  Medellin cartel along with Alfredo GOMEZ LOPEZ
and Jesus Emilio  ESCOBAR  HERNANDEZ.  He was an important member
of the OCHOA family, who was  in fact "dethroned" by his relative
Jorge Luis OCHOA VASQUEZ in  1976.    Still  seemingly  involved in
narcotics as are various Restrepo, including big time operator
Fernando RESTREPO.
RIVERA  GONZALEZ,  Camilo  and  Vicente  Wilson.    
Leticia traffickers apparently related to Veronica Rivera de 
VARGAS, the "Cocaine Queen".  Camilo convicted of trafficking  in 
Brazil.    Owner  of  La Primavera and Tuchchima ranching cocaine
operations.  Camilo  arrested  in Bogota in 1979 with several kilos
of HCL.  Camilo died  in  August  1986  in  a plane crash in the
Guainia River region.  Vicente Wilson  disappeared  and  surfaced
in Panama in January 1987.  He was found owing  to  surveillance of
Hector Fabio OCAMPO ORANGO, who was moving money from the Banco del
Occidente in Cali.  The Riveras often used their sawmill and logs 
in  which  to  ship  cocaine--a  signature of the Cali cartel.
RIVERA LLORENTE, Alfonso.   
Major Peruvian trafficker living in Medellin. He has and apparently
continues to work with the Colombian cartels, especially through
his agent, Jose DIAS AZCA, who  was caught in Uchiza, Peru in
December 1986.   Dias  Azca  is  an  assassin  who  in  1977 
murdered  a policeman who infiltrated the RIVERA LLORENTE group of
traffickers in Peru.
RIVERA,  Domingo.    
Pereira  trafficker,  once  called  the  "king  of Quaaludes".  In
the early 1980s  worked  with Malkun TAFACHE, who was arrested in
Barranquilla in 1980 with  a  shipment  of  quaaludes  and who now
lives in Panama where he serves as a link with traffickers.
ROBINSON, Eugene.
Washington Post journalist.ROCA  SUAREZ,  Jorge.    
In  late  June  1988  reported  to be working in Medellin. 
Powerful Bolivian drug lord.   His Coca loads are gathered and held
in Bolivia (Beni & Cochabamba) and  ships to the Medellin group,
especially to ESCOBAR GAVIRIA.    The  shipments  are  supervised 
by  Maria  Teresa ROCA, a relative, and "Toto" ARTEAGA who owns
property in the Beni.
RODRIGUEZ DE TAMAYO,  Ana Beatriz.    AKA  "La Faraona". 
Arrested in Cartagena in January 1987 and released for lack of 
evidence, although the US had asked for her extradition. 
Considered by  some  to  be one of Colombia's most important drug
traffickers.
She was extradited to the USA on October 14, 1989.
APn  10/14 1617  Colombians Extradited
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By CAROLYN SKORNECK
 Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. authorities flew three suspected drug
traffickers to jails in Florida and Michigan early Saturday in the
second extradition from Colombia since emergency measures were
imposed there in August.
   One of them has already been convicted, in absentia, in Detroit.
Florida prosecutors called one of the others a "big fish."
   U.S. marshals said the three were turned over to U.S. officials
in Colombia about 3 a.m. and flown to Miami, where one was dropped
off. The flight then continued to Orlando and Detroit to deliver
the other two. Marshals said the three were being held in "secure"
detention facilities in the three areas, but declined to be more
specific.
   The extraditions bring to four the number of people brought to
this country from Colombia since President Virgilio Barco imposed
emergency measures against drug traffickers Aug. 18.
   "I commend President Barco and the government of Colombia for
their continued diligence in the war against narcoterrorists,"
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said in a statement.
   "The Colombian people are setting an example for the world as
they continue to extradite international drug traffickers in the
face of continued threats and acts of intimidation," Thornburgh
said.
   Justice Department spokesman David Runkel identified the three
defendants as Ana Rodriguez de Tamayo, Roberto Peter Carlini-Arrico
and Bernardo Pelaez Roldan.
   The U.S. Marshals Service said de Tamayo, 50, faces charges in
Miami of cocaine importation and conspiracy to possess with intent
to distribute cocaine.
   Carlini-Arrico, 38, faces federal charges of possession with
intent to distribute 7,000 pounds of marijuana and importing 7,000
pounds of marijuana in the Middle District of Florida at Orlando,
marshals said.
   Three other defendants in that federal case are in custody, and
the trial is scheduled for November, Runkel said.
   Assistant State Attorney Andy Zelman said Carlini-Arrico is
accused by state authorities of smuggling more than a ton of
cocaine during the mid-1980s.
   State prosecutor Peter Antonacci said the 1986 state charges
against Carlini-Arrico consist of one count each of racketeering,
conspiracy to commit racketeering, cocaine trafficking and
conspiracy to traffic the drug. Each state count carries a 15-year
mandatory minimum sentence.
   Carlini-Arrico, who had Florida addresses in Boca Raton and
Gainesville, fled the country following the state indictments, said
Antonacci.
   "He is a big fish," said Antonacci. "We are glad we'll get a
chance to prosecute."
   Pelaez, 44, was convicted in absentia in Detroit in March 1984
of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.
   Barco allowed extradition among other emergency measures that
followed the assassination of a leading presidential candidate who
was an outspoken foe of the drug trade.
   Colombia's supreme court has upheld the decision to resume
extraditions to the United States. In 1987, it had blocked
extraditions.
   The first reputed drug trafficker extradited since the emergency
actions went into effect was Eduardo Martinez Romero, who was taken
to the United States on Sept. 6 to face money laundering charges
brought in March in Atlanta.
   Since Barco imposed the emergency measures, drug traffickers in
Colombia have declared "total war" on the government. They have
been held responsible for setting off more than 150 bombs that have
killed more than 10 people and wounded at least 200.

RODRIGUEZ GACHA, Jose Gonzalo (aka Gonzalo RODRIGUEZ GACHA; aka El
Mexicano [the Mexican]).   


Considered  one  of  the leaders, if not the leader of the Medellin
cartel  in  July  1986  as Pablo ESCOBAR and Jorge Luis OCHOA 
appeared  "semi-retired".    Rodriguez  supervises  trafficking
aspects through Panama and the West Coast (California) of the USA. 
It is claimed that he helped set up  the  Nicaraguan  operation 
that  used pilot Barry SEAL, and oversaw the  purchase  of  planes 
and  their  maintenance.    Born  at Pacho, Cundinamarca in 1947,
RG still operates out of that region.  His links to drug
trafficking go back at least to 1976.
Rodriguez is now the owner of  many  ranches.   He has many
apartments in Bogota and  uses  his  Aeroganaderas  operation  in 
Cundinamarca to transport narcotics.  RG also invested  along  with 
Pablo  ESCOBAR in properties in the Magdalena Medio, and founded
the  "Rancho  Hermosillo" and other properties in the  Puerto 
Boyaca   region   and   in   Rionegro  province  of  Cundinamarca
municipality, a trip of 2.5 hours from  Bogota.  He owns several
properties in the Llanos.
Present at his monster birthday  party  in 1986 were Pablo ESCOBAR,
Fabio OCHOA, Francisco BARBOSA,  Jairo  CORREA,  Flaminio  ORTIZ,
Gabriel MATIZ, and Gilberto MOLINA, all big timers.  He runs his
operation along with his brother JUSTO PASTOR RODRIGUEZ GACHA, and
a cousin Ramon RODRIGUEZ MUNOZ.
Rodriguez was indicted in  US  in  November  1986.   kidnapped
Bogota majoral candidate Andres  Pastrana  was  held  at  his  farm
until released in January 1988.  RG's associate and  drug  dealer
is Gilberto MOLINA, an emerald dealer who  was  released  in 
February  1988  after  being  charged with drug trafficking.
*** Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was killed in a shootout with
Colombian police on December 15, 1989.
Drug Kingpin 'El Mexicano' Is Violent Empire-Builder 
40-Year-Old a Symbol of Cocaine Wealth
Special to The Washington Post
11/14/87
WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 22: A SECTION TX           BOGOTA 
Colombia --
   Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, 40, the chief suspect named
yesterday by the government in the recent assassination of
Colombia's most prominent leftist politician, is a drug baron with
a reputation for violence and a passion for Mexican mariachi bands.
   Although he is the least-known leader of the Medellin drug
cartel, Rodriquez Gacha, known as "El Mexicano," serves as a symbol
of the fabulously wealthy new social class created by Colombia's
cocaine trade. Like most of his associates, he has risen rapidly
from humble origins.
   Born in the small farming town of Pacho, on the Bogota savanna,
Rodriguez Gacha migrated to the capital city and linked up with
Veronica Rivera de Vargas, a pioneer drug trafficker who became the
first queen of cocaine by murdering the family of her main rival.
   Moving on to Medellin, Rodriguez Gacha joined with Pablo Escobar
Gaviria and other drug entrepreneurs in putting together the
cocaine corporation cartel.              Ever the country boy,
Rodriquez Gacha has taken with him to the top a taste for the
robust culture of Mexican ranch life. His seven farms have Mexican
place names, and nightclubs he owns feature Mexican themes.       
      
   When he was an owner of the Bogota soccer team The Millionaires,
he hired a Mexican mariachi band to perform for the crowd. This is
still remembered by Colombia's conservative social elite, who look
down with distaste on the noisy mariachis as the vulgar music of
the lower-middle classes.
   Although Rodriguez Gacha may not have the ancestry of Colombia's
traditional families, he does not lack for power. He is considered
an empire-builder who feels hemmed in by the guerrillas and the
left.
   Authorities say Rodriguez Gacha, who manages the cartel's Bogota
business, ordered Jaime Pardo Leal, leader of the leftist Patriotic
Union, murdered last month in retaliation for recent guerrilla
attacks on drug traffickers in the eastern plains area known as the
"llanos orientales."
Cocaine Leaders Elude Colombian Authorities Raids Turn Up Arsenal,
Cartel's Records --- BY Eugene Robinson Washington Post Foreign
Service DD     08/27/89 SO     WASHINGTON POST (WP), PAGE 21: A
SECTION TX     BOGOTA  Aug. 26 -- When the army raided one of Jose
Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha's estates, near the town of Pacho, they
found a working gallows in the back yard. At a bunker where his son
Freddy was hiding out, authorities found an arsenal of machine guns
and grenades, along with Rodriguez Gacha's personal weapon -- a
gold-adorned 9 mm pistol with his initials etched on the bullets.
The whole of Pacho is now under virtual military occupation. The
raids there, in which a mother lode of financial and other
documents was found, are being described as a severe blow against
the man called "El Mexicano," whom a Bogota newsweekly recently
called Colombia's "public enemy number one." Rodriguez Gacha is
just one of a half-dozen key figures in the Colombian cocaine
trade. For a variety of reasons, including intelligence reports
that he has become unstable and is now himself a heavy cocaine
user, a U.S. narcotics expert here last week called him "the most
dangerous of all the heads of the cartels." But to understand the
role Rodriguez Gacha is said to play in the international drug
trade it is necessary to understand a bit of the history and
shifting structure of the Colombian cocaine industry, a ruthless
mafia with jet-set tastes and international reach. The Colombian
cocaine trade, which law enforcement officials estimate supplies
about 80 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States
market, centers on two major "cartels" or loose-knit organizations
based in the cities of Medellin and Cali. The Medellin cartel is
considered the larger and more bloodthirsty of the two, responsible
for most of the terror killings and kidnappings the drug bosses
have carried out during the past decade. From Medellin came
Thursday's communique signed by the "Extraditables" -- the cartel's
signature -- pledging all-out war against Colombian society, and it
was in Medellin that this new war began with a series of bombings
and arson fires. The Medellin cartel is believed to be a
cooperative effort of three major factions: the Ochoa family,
including brothers Jorge Luis, Fabio and Juan David Ochoa; a group
headed by Pablo Escobar, often called the first-among-equals in the
cartel and the world's single largest drug merchant, and the unit
headed by Rodriguez Gacha. Although most of them have humble
origins, they are a flashy, ostentatious group of men. Escobar, for
example, has a ranch outside Medellin called Hacienda Napoles where
he keeps a private zoo and what is said to be the plane used on the
cartel's first aerial cocaine-smuggling run to the United States.
He has built housing for the poor of Medellin and once was elected
to congress. The Medellin cartel is said to have pioneered the
export of cocaine to the United States. Carlos Lehder, while a
leader of the cartel, designed a system of air routes through the
Bahamas and other transit points that allowed the cartel to vastly
expand its operations. Lehder was arrested and extradited to the
United States in 1987 and is serving a federal prison term. The
Cali cartel, on the other hand, is a more publicity-shy group. That
organization is believed to be headed by Gilberto and Miguel
Rodriguez Orjuela and Jose Santacruz Londono -- all of whom, along
with the Medellin cartel members, figure on the 12-most-wanted list
of suspected drug kingpins that U.S. Attorney General Richard
Thornburgh sent to Colombian officials last Tuesday. "They are not
less violent, but they're quieter," a U.S. drug expert said of the
Cali cartel. The group keeps a low profile, is said to be heavily
invested in legitimate enterprises and has enjoyed hegemony over
the lucrative New York City cocaine market, according to officials
here and in the United States. The two cartels fought a "war" last
year that claimed scores of lives. Some analysts said the point of
friction was the Medellin group's attempt to break into the New
York market. Others said personal rivalries were to blame. In any
event, whatever differences the cartels may have are overshadowed
by the campaign of killings the drug bosses are believed to have
ordered to intimidate officials who would prosecute them or send
them to the United States for trial. The list of victims is long
and includes: Guillermo Cano, editor of the Bogota daily El
Espectador; Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos; Col. Jaime
Rodriguez, head of anti-narcotics operations; Rodrigo Lara Bonilla,
the justice minister whose 1984 slaying triggered a government
crackdown similar to the one that began two weeks ago after the
assassination of senator and presidential candidate Luis Carlos
Galan. Most or all of those slayings are believed to have been
ordered by Escobar. "Up to a year and a half ago, the most violent
and visible member of the cartel was Pablo Escobar," said a U.S.
narcotics expert. "He is probably still at the top. But we have
seen an increasing amount of violence and a lot of arrogance on the
part of Rodriguez Gacha." "El Mexicano," a dark complexioned,
broad-faced man in his 40s, is portrayed by U.S. and Colombian
sources as volcanic, violent and perhaps unstable. Not as
well-known in the United States as Escobar or the Ochoa family,
Rodriguez Gacha virtually controlled the town of Pacho -- one-third
of the adult population was said to have been on his payroll before
last week -- and also owns vast amounts of land in Colombia's
north. He is thought to be worth at least a billion dollars.
Rodriguez Gacha is believed to use several of his cattle ranches as
training centers for the sicarios, or young machine-gun-toting
assassins, who carry out the cocaine mafia's contract killings. He
also is thought to have a private army of up to 1,000 men. "El
Mexicano" got his start in the emerald industry, which is almost as
violent as the cocaine world. As one of Colombia's bigger
landowners, he is believed to have formed alliances with right-wing
ranchers and to have used his sicarios in a series of rural
massacres -- targeting leftist politicians and sympathizers -- in
which hundreds of people have been killed in the past few years.
Authorities describe their raids on Rodriguez Gacha's properties in
the Pacho area last week as the most significant advances thus far
in the government's stepped-up campaign against the drug
traffickers. One major catch was Freddy Gonzalo Rodriguez, the son
of "El Mexicano," who was arrested Thursday with seven other
suspects after a brief gun battle at a Rodriguez Gacha bunker near
Pacho. The retreat, named Buenos Aires, was in a nearly
inaccessible mountain area and appeared to be one of the few sites
raided in the recent capaign where the arrival of authorities had
not been anticipated by those inside. Freddy Rodriguez, 17, was
reportedly being held today at a National Police facility here in
Bogota. Authorities confiscated automatic weapons, rifles, pistols,
grenades and ammunition during the raid. But perhaps more
important, they reported seizing a trove of records relating to the
operations of Rodriguez Gacha's organization and the larger
Medellin cartel. The documents, according to police sources,
include accounting records dating back to 1982, bank statements and
other financial documents, a list of properties owned by Rodriguez
Gacha throughout the country, lists of attorneys and surrogate
property managers, and income statements that lay out relationships
with other cartel members. Authorities also have arrested Luis
Fernando Galeano Berrio, described as a top financial aide to
Rodriguez Gacha and a possible target for extradition to the United
States. And they have dismantled a sophisticated communications
center said to have been used to coordinate Rodriguez Gacha's
operations. The whereabouts of "El Mexicano" himself, like those of
the other suspected cartel chieftains, are unknown. @CAPTION:
Colombian soldiers guard an arms cache discovered at the estate of
reputed drug lord Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. ART:ph  AP 
10/13   [1989] BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Colombia deported an
alleged Canadian drug trafficker Friday wanted in Quebec for
smuggling a half ton of cocaine into Canada, a police spokeswoman
said.
   Richard Houle, who was captured in the resort town of Cartagena
on Wednesday was put on an aircraft Friday morning to Montreal,
with a stop-over in Miami, the spokeswoman said.
   The Bogota daily newspaper La Prensa said Houle had openly
operated a drug ring out of the Caribbean port where he has lived
for some four years.    The Canadian was brought to Bogota Thursday
and was turned over to Interpol, the international police force
Friday, authorities said.    The daily El Espectador newspaper,
whose employees have been the target of repeated terrorist attacks
by drug cartel-funded hit squads, continued its crusade against the
drug barons Friday saying they had planned a major attack on 
government targets shortly before President Virgilio Barco launched
his anti-drug offensive Aug. 18.
   More than half a ton of explosives was discovered earlier this
week in a 
secret underground arsenal under a country house in Pascho north of
Bogota owned 
by kingpin Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.
   Gacha, the number two man in the powerful Medellin cocaine
cartel, is wanted on drug trafficking charges in Florida and New
York. The government is offering a $125,000 reward for information
leading to his capture.    Authorities say the explosives and other
arms had been stashed before the assassination of leading
presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galen Aug. 18. It was Galen's
murder that caused the government to begin its anti-drug campaign. 
  Interior Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds in a statement issued
Thursday guaranteed the circulation of El Espectador, which the
drug cartels are attempting to shut down.
   Following the killing of two employees of El Espectador's
Medellin office by drug funded hit squads, a caller identifying
himself as a member of "the Extraditables" said the rest of the
Medellin staff would be killed unless the paper closed operations
in the region by Friday.
   "The closing of El Espectador," Lemos said to reporters in the
Presidential Palace, "would be no more and no less than declaring
the closing of democracy in 
Colombia."
   The newspaper said Friday it had managed a partial distribution
in Medellin thanks to extra police protection.
   Thursday night French President Francois Mitterrand on an
unscheduled visit to Colombia offered his support to the paper,
whose Bogota headquarters were destroyed by a 200 pound bomb Sept.
2.
   "I think those who attack the freedom of the press, and
especially terrorists, are enemies of democracy," Mitterrand said
before departing for Paris.
   Mitterrand, who was on a tour of Latin America which included
scheduled stops 
in Venezuela and Ecuador made an unscheduled visit to Bogota, where
he met with Barco to pledge his support for the war on drugs.
APn  11/14 2149  Colombia-Drug Money
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Soldiers raided a ranch owned by an
alleged leader of the Medellin drug cartel and found $5 million
buried in barrels, the army reported Tuesday.
   A news release from 13th Brigade headquarters in Bogota said the
ranch belonged to Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, described by U.S.
authorities as one of the top members of the cartel, which sends
billions of dollars worth of cocaine to the United States and other
countries each year.    It said the money, in U.S. currency,
consisted of $50, $20 and $10 bills and was buried in three barrels
on a ranch near Pacho called Cuernavaca. Pacho is about 50 miles
north of Bogota.
   Cuernavaca is named for a city in Mexico and Rodriguez Gacha is
known as "The Mexican" because of his admiration for that country. 
  President Virgilio Barco declared war on drug traffickers Aug. 19
after their assassins killed a popular opposition presidential
candidate, Sen. Luis Carlos Galan.
   Government security forces have raided ranches, mansions, office
buildings and other properties known or thought to belong to the
cocaine barons.    The army seized the Cuernavaca ranch nearly
three months ago. Soldiers found caches of weapons and
communications equipment there last month.
UPn  12/06 1428  Drug money seized in five nations By DAN
CARMICHAEL
   WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Authorities have frozen bank accounts in
five countries holding $61.8 million belonging to a key figure in
the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia, Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh said Wednesday.
   The money represents long-term high-yield investments belonging
to Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez-Gacha, a "member of the triumvirate that
heads the Medellin cocaine cartel," the Justice Department said.
   The seizure followed a raid on a home in Colombia in October
that produced a treasure trove of financial records, said Jack
Lawn, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
   Rodriguez-Gacha remains at large, as does his financial expert,
Mauricio Vives, in whose name the money was held in bank accounts
in five countries -- England, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and
the United States.
   Vives controlled about $81 million of Rodriguez-Gacha's drug
money, Lawn said, but authorities were able to freeze only $61.8
million because about $20 million was suddenly transferred to
Panama, where it is protected from U.S. authorities.
   "We have lost $20 million," Lawn told reporters.
   Rodriguez-Gacha is on the Justice Department's "dirty dozen"
list of cocaine cartel leaders most wanted by the United States.
   "He was investing in high-yield stocks and investments," Lawn
said, and the now-frozen assets consisted of stocks and cash.
   "This really is precedent-setting in size and scope," Thornburgh
said. He said it represented part of the "stash" of the
Rodriguez-Gacha organization but he gave no indication what
percentage the $61.8 million might constitute.
   Although Rodriguez-Gacha remains free, Thornburgh said, "He has
been shorn of substantial assets."
   Of the total amount seized, $2 million was in banks in the
United States. Thornburgh refused to identify any of the banks
involved in the case.
   The frozen money "will be handled in accordance with the laws of
the countries where it was seized," the department said, and
Thornburgh praised legal authorities overseas for speedy
cooperation with the United States.
   In addition to the money in American banks, the department said,
Luxembourg froze 10 accounts containing $39.4 million in assets,
Switzerland froze accounts worth $10.3 million, Austria blocked
$5.9 million and Britain froze $4.2 million.
   The bank accounts were under the control of Vives and money only
could be moved on the basis of his signature, Lawn said.
   Lawn said the DEA is continuing a long-term investigation "where
we are looking at the cartels." He said agents also are sifting
through financial records of other Colombian drug lords.
   The Rodriguez-Gacha financial records were uncovered during a
raid in October on a home belonging to Alfonso Rodriguez Munoz, "a
nephew and long-time criminal associate of Rodriguez-Gacha," the
Justice Department said.
   A department "biography" of Rodriguez-Gacha says his role "is to
oversee the cocaine laboratories where the cocaine is produced and
to oversee the transportation of the cocaine from the laboratory to
various areas in Colombia."
   The cocaine is eventually shipped "by air through Mexico" to Los
Angeles, the government said, and then distributed throughout the
United States. 
Reut 12/15 1609  COLOMBIAN DRUG BOSS KILLED BY POLICE, RADIO SAYS 
    BOGOTA, Dec 15, Reuter - Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, considered
one of the top bosses of the Medellin cartel of drug traffickers,
was killed on Friday by police, a Colombian radio station said.
    Quoting police reports, Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN) said
Rodriguez Gacha, his son Freddy and 11 other members of the cartel
were killed during a police anti-drug swoop in Covenas. REUTER 
MH   12/15 1650  REPUTED COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTEL LEADER REPORTEDLY 
... 
REPUTED COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTEL LEADER REPORTEDLY KILLED BY POLICE 
     McGRAW-HILL NEWS (Bogota, Colombia)--Reputed Medellin cocaine
cartel leader Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was killed in a gun
battle with Colombian police, Radio RCN reported.
     The radio station quoted a police spokesman as saying that 11
other people were killed in the shootout.
     He was indicted in Colombia for organizing death squads and
was wanted in the U.S. on cocaine-smuggling charges.--UPI 
 Copyright 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 
 
UPn  12/15 1707  Police say cocaine cartel leader killed 
By FEDERICO FULLEDA
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- Medellin cocaine cartel leader Jose
Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the United States' most-wanted drug
traffickers, was killed in a gun battle with police Friday,
authorities said.
   Colombian police said that about 15 others, including Rodriguez
Gacha's son, Freddy Rodriguez Celades, and several bodyguards, died
in the shootout with an elite police force in the town of Covenas,
about 330 miles north of Bogota.
   Radio RCN said the confrontation lasted more than a half-hour.
   Police Deputy Director Gen. Carlos Casadiego said an
intelligence operation had helped "locate ... where Rodriguez
Gacha, his son and other people, appearing to be the bodyguards,
were."
   Casadiego told reporters that the operation involved the
cooperation of the entire police force and "the anti-narcotics
(forces) fighting against drug-trafficking.
   Rodriguez Gacha, 42, was known as one of the world's biggest
drug dealers. In 1987, he made the cover of Fortune Magazine as the
newest billionaire cocaine trafficker.
   Identified by the U.S. Justice Department as a member of the
"triumvirate that heads the Medellin cocaine cartel," Rodriguez
Gacha was on the "dirty dozen" list of the 12 Colombian drug cartel
suspects most wanted for extradition to the United States.
   Rodriguez Gacha was known as "The Mexican" because of his
fondness for mariachi bands. The Justice Department said his role
was "to oversee the cocaine laboratories where the cocaine is
produced and to oversee the transportation of the cocaine from the
laboratory to various areas in Colombia."
   Attorney General Dick Thornburgh announced Dec. 6 that
authorities had frozen accounts in five countries holding $61.8
million belonging to Rodriguez-Gacha. Another $20 million was
shipped to Panama, effectively putting it out of the reach of
American authorities.
   Rodriguez Gacha has been indicted in Colombia for organizing a
number of death sqauds and is wanted in several U.S. cities on
cocaine smuggling charges. U.S. officials believe that, in the
1970s, Rodriguez Gacha pioneered cocaine distribution routes from
Colombia through Mexico to Los Angeles and Houston.
   The news of Rodriguez Gacha's death came as Colombia extradited
the 10th suspected drug trafficker to the United States since a
crackdown began in August and as efforts to force a public
referendum on a U.S.-Colombia extradition treaty appeared to
falter.
   The Senate was left with less than the 58 members required for
a vote on the referendum Friday when all but one senator from the
opposition Social Conservative Party stormed out to protest a
Liberal Party plan to erase the question of extradition from the
ballot.
   With the congressional term ending Saturday, it is unlikely the
Senate will have time to pass the legislation -- designed to let
the public vote on the treaty -- and pass the bill back to the
House of Representatives, where amendments would have to be
ratified.
   President Virgilio Barco has been a tireless enemy of a public
vote on extradition, which his government considers the backbone of
its three-month offensive against rampaging drug cartels.
   Last week, the House of Representatives tagged extradition on a
proposal for a referendum scheduled next month on constitutional
reform and peace with a leftist rebel group.
   The Barco administration feels a fair referendum on extradition
is impossible because of intimidation by the drug cartels, who have
killed almost 200 people in a three-month bombing campaign. Cartel
kingpins threatened to escalate the killing unless the Senate voted
to put extradition on the ballot.
   If the Congress does not approve the laws by Saturday, the
referendum will hang in limbo until the new legislature takes
office on July 20 following elections in March.
   In addition, a decision to put off the public vote on
extradition until September would pass the issue to the next
administration, which takes over Aug. 7. Colombian law prevents
Barco from running again in presidential elections scheduled for
May 27.
   Barco re-established extradition on Aug. 18 to counter the
powerful drug cartels, blamed for a string of assassinations of
judges, politicians and law enforcement officials.
   The drug lords responded by declaring war, springing a bomb and
assassination campaign to force the government to stop the
extraditions.
   Ten Colombians have been sent to the United States to face drug
trafficking charges since the beginning of September, and the
government is planning to extradite seven more captured suspects
held in a Bogota jail.
   Nelson Cuevas Ramirez, the 10th Colombian to be extradited to
the United States since Barco began his anti-drug campaign, arrived
in New York Friday and was to be arraigned.
   Despite the successes of the all-out offensive on the cocaine
cartels, none of the top drug chiefs had been captured.
APn  12/15 2110  Gacha Profile 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By TOM WELLS Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, the son of
Colombian peasants, was a pig farmer who became one of the richest
men in the world with profits from cocaine trafficking.
   He was believed to have more than a billion dollars stashed away
at the time of his death Friday in a gunfight with police.
   Rodriguez Gacha, 42, was one of the leaders of the Medellin
cartel, which along with the Cali cartel is responsible for 80
percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States.
   Rodriguez Gacha had a grade school education and went from pig
farming to bartending. In the 1970s he became a hired killer for a
Colombian gangster trying to gain control of emerald mines.
   He became feared throughout the tropical areas of central
Colombia, killing emerald buyers and stealing their wares.
   He also became wealthy and surrounded himself with bodyguards
and beautiful women.
   About 10 years ago he became aware of the immense appetite for
drugs in the United States and began using his emerald-war profits
to buy cocaine base from Bolivia to be processed into pure cocaine.
   By 1984 he had so much money he was giving some away.
   When the southern city of Popayan was devastated by a 1984
earthquake, Rodriguez Gacha was seen walking through the ruined
city giving money to stunned survivors.
   He and other major drug traffickers banded together to form the
Medellin cartel, named after the northwestern city of Medellin
where smugglers traditionally had their headquarters.
   Rodriguez Gacha had many ranches, but perhaps his favorite was
at Pacho, 50 miles north of Bogota.
   After the government declared war against the drug dealers last
August when a presidential candidate was assassinated the army
occupied the Pacho ranch. Many peasants in the area told an
Associated Press reporter at the time of the takeover that
Rodriguez Gacha was generous.
   They said he gave away thousands of dollars, providing money for
medical treatment and for seed and farm equipment when they could
not get loans from the government's farm bank.
   Police acknowledged that Rodriguez Gacha's popularity with
peasants had made it difficult to trap him.
   An American diplomat, speaking with the condition of anonymity,
told journalists three months ago that Rodriguez Gacha and other
traffickers had hundreds of people on their payrolls to help watch
for police raids.
   A vendor in a town square would be paid $50 a month to watch for
security forces heading toward Rodriguez Gacha's ranch, the
diplomat said, and a police colonel might be paid $15,000 a month
for information.
   But if Rodriguez Gacha was a saint to some Colombians he was a
monster to others.
   Authorities said he was behind the Aug. 18 murder of Sen. Luis
Carlos Galan, one of the country's leading presidential candidates
who was shot down while addressing a campaign rally.
   Galan had called for more energetic action against drug
traffickers.
   Rodriguez Gacha also was responsibile for the killing in 1988 of
Jaime Pardo Leal, leader of the left-wing Patriotic Union Party,
authorities said. More than 700 members of the Patriotic Union have
been slain the past four years.
   Rodriguez Gacha was accused of paying right-wing death squads to
kill peasants suspected of supporting leftist guerrillas.
   Officials said Rodriguez Gacha was enraged by the guerrillas'
attempts to extort money from ranchers in areas where he owned
property and vowed to exterminate them and any of their
sympathizers. 
 
APn  12/15 2201  Colombia-Gacha 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By STAN YARBRO Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police who had stalked him for months
killed Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, one of the most powerful cocaine
barons, in a shootout Friday near Covenas, a port on the Caribbean.
   Rodriguez Gacha, his 17-year-old son Fredy and five bodyguards
were killed in the shootout 360 miles north of Bogota at a ranch
owned by Pablo Escobar, another kingpin in Colombia's
multibillion-dollar drug empire, national police chief Miguel Gomez
Padilla said. No mention was made of police casualties.
   President Bush called President Virgilio Barco Friday night and
congratulated him and the Colombian police on the death of the
42-year-old trafficker, Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez said in a
television interview.
   The gunfight was at a ranch only 70 miles south of Cartagena,
the city where Bush is to meet in February with the presidents of
Latin America's three major drug-producing countries -- Barco, Alan
Garcia of Peru and Jaime Paz Zamora of Bolivia.
   Maza, commander of the federal investigative police, said police
had been pursuing Rodriguez Gacha, the No. 2 man in the Medellin
cartel, for 70 hours in the Covenas coastal zone before catching up
with him.
   Rodriguez Gacha was on the list of a dozen Colombian drug
traffickers most wanted by the U.S. Justice Department.
   Maza said telephone switchboards at police stations and the
presidential palace were flooded with congratulatory calls.
   "The country and the world have received this news with
satisfaction," he said. "We know this because of the quantity of
calls from citizens, from women crying with joy because the head of
the most dangerous and forceful terrorist organization on earth has
just died."
   But he said Rodriguez Gacha's death would not end terrorist
violence in Colombia.
   "We cannot say that we have broken the back of organized crime,
but since its head has lost its brain, what follows will be a
little easier." he said.
   Police will know concentrate efforts to capture Escobar, Maza
said. "We just need a little luck like we had today with Rodriguez
Gacha."
   Escobar, a former pickpocket who leads the Medellin operation
and remains at large, was believed to be in the area of the ranch
at the time of the shootout, Interior Minister Carlos Lemos said in
a televised interview.
   Lemos did not elaborate except to say sternly to the camera,
"Individuals who are involved in crime will end up like Rodriguez
Gacha ended up."
   Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha, nicknamed "El Mexicano" because of
his fondness for anything Mexican, have been the objects of
manhunts by U.S. and Colombian authorities since Barco ordered a
crackdown on drug traffickers after a opposition presidential
candidate was slain Aug. 18.
   Police earlier reported 11 bodyguards among the dead before
downgrading that at a news conference to five.
   "The operation to locate Rodriguez Gacha was an intellegence
operation of great care," Gen. Carlos Arturo Casadiego, assistant
director of the national police, said in an interview with the
Caracol radio network.
   In Washington, William Bennett, national drug control policy
director, said Barco told him the news by telephone call.
   Bennett said the fugitives "resisted police efforts to arrest
them, opening fire on Colombian authorities. Colombian police
returned fire, killing Rodriguez Gacha, his son, and 10 or more
cartel bodyguards."
   Authorities say Rodriguez Gacha and Escobar planned the Dec. 8
bombing of the federal investigative police headquarters in
downtown Bogota. The blast, which left a huge crater, killed 63
people and injured an estimated 1,000 people.
   The bombing was the most brazen by the traffickers, who have
mounted dozens of attacks to retaliate for the extradition of 10
drug suspects to the United States.
   A total of 209 people have been killed in bombings and
assassinations. Among those killed in the bombings have been 50
judges, two newspaper publishers and the chief of the narcotics
police.
   The two men also were accused in the Nov. 27 bombing of a
Colombian domestic jetliner just outside Bogota that killed all 107
people aboard.
   In October, the government offered $581,000 for the capture of
either man.
   Rodriguez Gacha, who died a billionaire, was a pig farmer before
he got into the cocaine business.
   Among his victims, according to Colombian authorities, was the
president of the leftist Patriotic Union party, Jaime Pardo Leal,
assassinated Oct. 12, 1988.
   He also was accused of several massacres of peasants believed to
sympathize with leftist guerrillas. He was said to be financing
right-wing death squads that have killed hundreds of other
leftists.
   In addition to wars with the government and peasants, Rodriguez
Gacha also fought the rival cocaine cartel in Cali, a southern
city, and was involved in a struggle with other gangsters for
control of Colombia's emerald mines.
   Escobar started out in Medellin, Colombia's second most populous
city and about 200 miles from Bogota, as a petty criminal and car
thief. Now, Forbes magazine ranks him as being worth $2 billion to
$3 billion.
   Rodriguez Gacha was indicted in July 1988 with six other reputed
drug traffickers by a federal grand jury in Miami. He was charged
with importing 1,350 pounds of cocaine into the United States.
   He also was indicted in Miami in 1986 on charges involving the
Medellin Cartel and the importation of 58 tons of cocaine, and
faced charges in New York.
   Attorney General Dick Thornburgh recently announced that $61.8
million worth of his assets had been frozen in several nations
around the world as a result of a U.S. investigation. Another $20
million was spirited to banks in Panama before U.S. agents could
get court orders blocking the accounts.
   In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Harri Kramer said
Colombian national police called the Drug Enforcement
Administration and said of Rodriguez Gacha: "He's gone. It was a
firefight." Kramer said.
   Casadiego said the operation Friday was proof Colombian police
have "the capacity to fight drug traffickers" and "there is
sufficient political will" in the country to carry the battle
forward.
   Until the shootout Friday, authorities had captured and
extradited 10 middle-level drug trafficking suspects but had not
caught any of the 12 suspected traffickers most wanted by the
United States.
   The police said they had come close in the last two months to
catching several members of the Medellin Cartel, including Escobar
and Jorge Luis Ochoa, another of the top three leaders.
   A judge released Fredy Rodriguez three weeks ago from a Bogota
jail, where he had been held for three months. The judge said he
released him because it was illegal under Colombian law to lock up
people under 18. 
APn  12/16 1019  Colombia 
Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 
By STAN YARBRO Associated Press Writer
   BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police who tracked down and killed a
powerful leader of the Medellin drug cartel called the slaying a
"splendid Christmas present," but warned that drug terrorism could
rise as a result.
   Hours after Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, his 17-year-old son Fredy
and five bodyguards were killed in a hail of gunfire Friday,
authorities pledged to hunt down Pablo Escobar, Colombia's cocaine
godfather and its most-wanted criminal.
   President Bush called President Virgilio Barco to congratulate
him and the country's security forces for eliminating Rodriguez
Gacha, who has been implicated in hundreds of murders of
politicians, judges and peasants.
   Colombia's Medellin and Cali drug cartels are believed
responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine that reaches the streets
of the United States.
   The operation was by far the biggest success of Barco's
16-week-old war on drug traffickers. Authorities said Gacha
Rodriguez in fact had ordered the Aug. 18 assassination of a
leading presidential candidate, the slaying that led to the
government's crackdown on traffickers.
   A Bogota daily, La Prensa, today quoted a journalist who was
present at the raid as saying Rodriguez Gacha killed himself with
a hand grenade after he was cornered by police.
   The journalist was identified as Silvio Cohen, a correspondent
for Barranquilla's El Heraldo newspaper. La Prensa said Rodriguez
Gacha's body was ripped to pieces by the grenade explosion.
   However, an official coroner's report released today said bullet
wounds to the head and body had killed Rodriguez Gacha, apparently
confirming the official version of his death.
   Just hours after the drug lord's death, gunmen fatally shot a
police lieutenant in Medellin, the RCN radio network reported. RCN
said it was not known if the slaying was related to the drug war.
   Security forces tracked Rodriguez Gacha to a farm owned by
Escobar near the Caribbean port of Covenas, 360 miles north of
Bogota. Rodriguez Gacha and the others were wiped out in the fierce
battle that ensued, Gen. Miguel Gomez Padilla, the national police
chief, told a news conference in Bogota.
   The New York Times reported in today's editions that police laid
a trap for Rodriguez Gacha about 10 days ago. The newspaper,
quoting senior police officials, said Gacha's son, who had been
arrested earlier on a weapons charge, was freed so police could
follow him to Rodriguez Gacha.
   About 1,000 police and troops, supported by seven helicopter
gunships, participated in the operation, Colombia's leading
newspaper El Tiempo reported today, citing police officials as its
sources. Security forces began mobilizing for the raid late
Thursday, El Tiempo said.
   A judge had released the trafficker's son from jail on Nov. 23
after holding him for three months. Police arrested the youth on
Aug. 25 after raiding his hideout and discovering a weapons cache.
   El Tiempo quoted a police official as saying that authorities
acted on information provided by farmers in the area. Gen. Carlos
Arturo Casadiegos reportedly said the government would pay a
$581,000 reward to the farmers.
   None of the various versions of the events could be confirmed
with Bogota police today.
   Miguel Maza Marquez, head of Colombia's investgative police,
said the trafficker's death was "a splendid Christmas present."
   Rodriguez Gacha was linked to many of the killings that have
rocked Colombia and killed 199 people since Aug. 18.
   Maza accused Rodriguez Gacha of ordering the killing of
presidential candidate Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, a staunch opponent
of the nation's drug trade and the favorite to succeed Barco.
   Rodriguez Gacha also has been accused of the murders of Justice
Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984, of newspaper publisher
Guillermo Cano in 1986 and of the leader of the leftist Patriotic
Union Party, Jaime Pardo Leal, in 1988.
   Maza also blamed Rodriguez Gacha for a Dec. 8 car bomb attack
that killed 63 people outside the investigative police
headquarters. His cartel also was suspected in the Nov. 27 bombing
of a Avianca airlines jetliner near Bogota, which killed 107
people.
   Among the possible results of Rodriguez Gacha's death is an
increase in violence within the cartel itself to fill the power
vacumn.
   Maza said the next step was to hunt down Escobar. "We just need
a little luck like we had today with Rodriguez Gacha," Maza said.
   A former pig farmer who became a billionaire cocaine trafficker,
Rodriguez Gacha owned vast stretches of land in Colombia.
   He was fighting wars against the government as well as a rival
cocaine cartel from the southern city of Cali. He was also battling
other gangsters for control of the country's emerald mines.
   "This guy wants to be the Hitler of Colombia," a foreign
diplomat said recently.
   Rodriguez Gacha also financed and directed several right-wing
death squads. In recent years, the death squads have killed
hundreds of peasants suspected of supporting left-wing guerrillas.
   Officials have assumed that the drug lords are using a bombing
campaign to try to pressure the government into abandoning its
extradition policy, decreed by the president as part of the latest
crackdown.
   The government has sent 10 middle-level drug suspects to the
United States in less than four months. 
UPn  12/16 1939  Colombia celebrates death of `King of Cocaine' 
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
   BOGOTA, Colombia (UPI) -- President Virgilio Barco praised
authorities Saturday on the shooting death of the powerful Medellin
drug cartel's No. 2 man, the biggest victory in the nation's war on
cocaine traffickers.
   Cocaine baron Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, nicknamed "The Mexican"
for his love of Mexican folk music and culture, died Friday in a
shootout with elite police anti-drug forces at a ranch near
Covenas, 345 miles north of Bogota. Also killed were his son
Freddy, 17, and five bodyguards.
   Barco, speaking to reporters after giving a state of the union
address at the end of the congressional term, credited the killing
to "the capacity of our police and its intelligence to control
those who don't comply with the law."
   The death of Rodriguez Gacha, 42, was a huge victory for Barco,
who began an intense war on cocaine trafficking following the
assassination Aug. 18 of Sen. Luis Galan, the front-running
presidential candidate of Barco's Liberal Party.
   President Bush also praised the action Saturday and Barco's
continuing battle against his country's drug barons after a meeting
with French President Francois Mitterrand in Marigot, St. Martin.
   "I was delighted," Bush told a joint news conference, "when the
Colombian government brought to bay the man who was ranked as the
third most prominent narco-terrorist in Colombia."
   And hailing the move as "very courageous," Bush lauded the Barco
government for "doing its level best" in the nation's war against
drug traffickers. "I think we ought to salute him."
   While the police and army have confiscated hundreds of
properties and arrested a number of cocaine figures, all of the
kingpins of the highly lucrative trade had previously eluded
capture.
   "It is the best Christmas present possible for the police and
Colombians," said Gen. Miguel Gomez Padilla, head of the National
Police, who traveled to the scene of the shootout. "We are
satisfied to have helped Colombia and the world in this manner."
   Police said they located Rodriguez Gacha through intelligence
operations. The government had posted a $230,000 reward for
information on his whereabouts. Gomez said the reward money would
be distributed secretly.
   While celebrating the victory, the nation braced for a continued
crackdown on drug traffickers.
   "It is necessary to recognize that this blow represents a great
triumph for the government of President Barco and the armed forces,
and it provided the nation with long-awaited relief," said an
editorial in the El Tiempo newspaper.
   "But careful," warned the editorial, "the battle was won, but
not the war."
   Police Chief Gomez Padilla said, "We will not let down our
guard. We will continue our mission to combat narcotics traffickers
and terrorists without vacillation."
   The shootout came less than two weeks after a huge car bomb
exploded outside the headquarters of the secret police in Bogota,
killing 65 people. It also followed the Nov. 27 bombing of an
Avianca Airlines flight in which 110 people died.
   Rodriguez Gacha was blamed for the bombings, along with the
deaths of Galan and, over a number of years, those of a justice
minister and an attorney general, as well as a leading newspaper
publisher and other top police and government officials.
   He also formed deaths squads that killed scores of leftist
political leaders and communist guerrillas, officials said.
   A U.S. narcotics expert said Rodriguez Gacha was believed to
have become addicted to cocaine in recent years.
   Rodriguez Gacha was one of the top figures in the Medellin
cartel, the world's biggest supplier of cocaine led by Pablo
Escobar Gaviria. His picture once appeared on the cover of
"Fortune" magazine and his wealth was estimated by various
publications at $5 billion.
   Attorney General Dick Thornburgh announced Dec. 6 that
authorities had frozen accounts in five countries holding $61.8
million belonging to Rodriguez Gacha. Another $20 million was
shipped to Panama, effectively putting it out of the reach of U.S.
authorities.
   Rodriguez Gacha began as an emerald merchant and was introduced
to the cocaine trade by Pablo Escobar, who now appears to be the
most powerful member of the Medellin cartel. A reward also has been
posted for Escobar's capture.
   On Nov. 23, Gacha's son Freddy was released from Bogota's Modelo
prison, where he had been held for three months on gun possession
charges, and may have unwittingly led the authorities to his
father.
   At 3 p.m. Friday, the elite force, backed up with helicopters
armed with mounted machine guns, assaulted the ranch with grenade
attacks and followed with a half-hour firefight.
   Gacha and his son were separated in confusion following the
raid, with the kingpin and a bodyguard trying to escape in a
Chevrolet truck parked near the ranchhouse. 
 
Database continued